Belonging
by Sunriseonmymind
Summary: The not-so-dramatic tale of a melodramatic teenager and his stalker. AkuRoku. Updated AGAIN! I know, right?
1. Prologue

_Alright, guys, let's try this again, eh? This is a re-write of my previous story, also entitled __**Belonging**__. If you read this before, some things have changed. Not many, but enough that it would be worthwhile to go back and re-read it, especially considering that I last updated it three years ago. This story's my playground, so expect some drama, some sadness, and some really corny attempts at humor._

_Let me just go ahead and disclaim anything that's not mine for the remainder of the story, so we can get this thing going. _

_Rewrite notes: A few grammatical changes, nothing too drastic_

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Riku and Sora.

They just were. They belonged together, like the shore and the ocean, the sun and the moon– hell, like peanut butter and jelly. And no one ever thought it should – thought it _could_ – be different. From the moment Riku moved in next door and Sora delivered the traditional "Welcome to the neighborhood" cake (such a sweet and wide-eyed little six year old, proudly grinning to show off the gap where one of his front teeth used to be), fate was set. Riku, already used to getting what he wanted, had immediately claimed that the smaller boy was his new, official "bestest" friend, and what could Sora do but agree? He'd never been a "bestest" friend before, after all.

As the years passed, it was rare, if even possible, to find one boy without the other.

In the cootie-less society of seventh graders, Riku was a prize for girls everywhere; they followed him around incessantly, sighing over his dreamy silver hair and beautiful aqua eyes, leaving notes and messages begging for anything from a phone number to a marriage proposal. But Riku didn't even see them; Sora was the center of his universe, and no one, minus the heartbroken girls, of course, gave it a second thought. After all, that was how it was supposed to be.

So junior high went, and high school came, and finally, after countless not-so-subtle hints from family and friends and one very eventful homecoming dance, _finally_ they were really, truly together, as they were meant to be, and they loved each other so _very_ much that no one cared if they were both boys – this was _Riku and Sora_.

And they belonged together.

Roxas was Sora's baby brother by thirteen minutes. He had been a surprise, tiny and hidden behind Sora throughout the pregnancy, but the doctors had insisted he was healthy, if a bit paler than his brother. The twins' mother, dosed up on more pain meds than she could name, had quickly improvised the name Roxas – X-Sora, the blond would occasionally think.

Despite the supposed implications of the name, Roxas never felt unloved or neglected by his family. In fact, Roxas had been content with being Sora's quiet shadow until Riku happened. Quite suddenly, quiet little six year old Roxas, with the observant blue eyes and shy smile, realized that he had to share his brother with this almost-stranger who had all-but taken his place with one toothy smirk and two words: Be mine.

Was Roxas jealous? Hell yeah. Even now, ten years later, he was still prone to sulking fits of envy that his twin led such a charmed life, from fantastic personality to ridiculously devoted boyfriend. Roxas, on the other hand, worked hard for what he got, be it good grades or good friends. It was nearly two years after Riku moved in before the blond managed to find his own set of friends to hang out with, and, outside of a disastrous week-long experiment with Olette, Roxas had never even been in a relationship, much less experienced the deep love his brother and Riku shared.

But Roxas grew out of his brother's shadow and blossomed into a stubborn, quiet, and generally kindhearted teenager. Sure, he had his pet peeves, and he tended to prefer seclusion over inclusion most days, but not much could really make him angry, or upset, or even truly elated, because in a desperate attempt to create some distinction between himself and his twin, Roxas had constructed a fine, sturdy wall, behind which he firmly kept any unnecessary emotions locked away,.

That, of course, was before Axel.


	2. Chapter I

_First real chapter! Yay! _

_Changes: Okay, there's actually some pretty substantial changes in here as far as later plot development goes, but it's mostly just some different responses and lots of out of character issues have been resolved!

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Growling in frustration, a blond teenager with spiky, disheveled hair erased his work for going on the fourteenth time. Roxas figured that the paper was about one more wrong answer away from tearing straight through and wasn't sure if he even had another clean sheet of paper in his notebook. With a deep sigh, the blond reworked the problem yet again. _Subtract the nine, square the twenty-two..._ Halfway through equation he checked his work against the book and bit back a yell of frustration. Where had that negative sign even come from?!

Roxas wasn't the star student in tenth grade algebra, but rarely did he get this hung up over something as supposedly straightforward as quadratic equations. The blond stabbed his math book a couple times with his pencil for good measure before rolling off his bed exhaustedly, landing on a pile of clothes with a soft _fwump_. He pushed himself to his feet, grabbed his math work, and set off for his brother's room; surely Sora, in a higher math than he, could explain what he was doing wrong.

"Hey, Sora, you busy? I just can't get-" he pushed his twin's bedroom door open and let his sentence trail off when he found said twin being happily straddled by a certain silver-haired boy. Neither boy acknowledged his entrance, nor even seemed to notice it, something that didn't surprise Roxas at all, considering how tightly Sora's hands were twisted in Riku's hair and how far down Sora's throat Riku's tongue must have been. Making a disgusted face, Roxas hurriedly shut the door without bothering to be quiet; the pair was clearly too occupied to care.

One of the pictures on Sora's door caught his eye before he turned away. It was a snapshot of his and Sora's thirteenth birthday party; the large half-chocolate, half-vanilla cake was visible in the background, missing the "app" from "Happy Birthday" and all four corner pieces. Sora's mom, about to rush off for the graveyard shift at the local drugstore, had ushered Riku and Sora together to pose "just one more time, honey", and Sora, sensing his twin's discomfort before Roxas himself realized it, had pulled the blond into the photo as well. The picture caught Riku and Sora in the center, arms slung about each other and identical grins on their faces, with Roxas standing off to the side, attempting to look bored but smiling nonetheless at his twin's happiness.

Roxas's stomach chose that moment to voice its objection to such reminiscing with a boisterous growl. The blond looked down at his stomach contemplatively before deciding that afternoon snack trumped homework.

After tossing his notebook in the general direction of his room, Roxas excavated some leftover Chinese from the front of the refrigerator (general house rules dictated that the freshest food went in the front, while the older and more dubious leftovers were pushed back until someone got up the nerve to throw them away). After setting his chicken fried rice in the microwave to heat up, Roxas took a moment to glance around their sparse, yet adequate kitchen. It was clean, almost creepily so, a sure sign that his mother must have come home at one point and picked up some before returning to work. His brows furrowed at that thought. His mother, Aerith, spent way too much time working; between the pharmacy job at night and the secretary position she held during the day, the twins rarely saw their mother for more than a quick hello-goodbye between shifts.

Their father – 'Bastard,' Roxas thought bitingly – had walked out not quite two years ago, unable to accept his son being gay, which left their mother working twice as hard just to pay the bills and get some food in the fridge. Riku's parents helped out more than their Aerith knew, often inviting Sora and Roxas over for dinner or showering them with "just because" gifts of clothing and video games. They were, after all, as good as family, and had more than a bit of spare cash to throw around, with Riku's mom being a well renowned and respected psychiatrist and Riku's dad the CEO of the largest electronics company in the country.

"_When you walk away,_

_You don't hear me say,_

_Please, oh ba_-"

The tune abruptly cut off and Roxas heard a muffled and rather irritated voice grunt "Hello?" from Sora's bedroom. The blond grabbed a can of diet soda, making a face at the general lack of decent beverages. A few seconds later he heard Sora's bedroom door open, and Riku walked into the kitchen, cell phone to ear and silver hair all of the place.

"Yeah, yeah... Yes, Dad, I know... I'm sorry! I was at Sora's hou-- What? Yeah, he's fine," Riku glanced at the brunet that had followed him into the kitchen and rolled his eyes, making Sora giggle in a decidedly girly fashion. "Yeah, Dad. Okay... It slipped my mind... Yeah, I'll be there in a minute... Leaving right now... Okay... Love you too. Bye."

Roxas pulled his food from the microwave and settled down at the table with a pair of chopsticks and ten or fifteen packets of soy sauce, shamelessly listening in on Riku and Sora's conversation.

"What'd your dad want?" Sora questioned as he rummaged through the fridge. Riku paused a second before answering, taking time to enjoy the view of Sora bent over and wiggling in his quest for food.

"What? Oh, I forgot that my cousin was coming over to stay for a while, and that I was supposed to be home to let him in." He caught his reflection in a nearby mirror and grimaced before attempting to fix the silver tangle sitting atop his head. "Didn't you just eat an hour ago?"

Sora straightened up and turned to Riku, his nose wrinkled cutely. "For your information, Riku, I need proper nourishment to look this adorable all the time."

Riku smiled dotingly at his "adorable" boyfriend before continuing to mess with his hair, prompting Roxas to wonder exactly how long it took the silveret to get ready for school each morning. "Oh, really?" Riku teased, "And here I thought all that cuteness was natural."

Sora made a classic "pshaw" noise. "Not Sephiroth, is it? He scared me." (Sora was once again delving into the depths of the fridge in his search, and he replied to his boyfriend's earlier statement as if there had been no interruption; Roxas found that this was a common occurrence in a Riku-Sora conversation, and he was always amazed that neither of the two ever seemed to get confused.)

Sephiroth _had_ been slightly creepy (if carrying a ridiculously long sword around everywhere and occasionally coming home late with spots of blood on said weapon made one creepy), but Roxas couldn't find it in him to be scared of a man with hair that long and gorgeous, obviously the result of some serious hair care products.

Sora was now pulling several take out containers out and setting them on the counter in order to examine the furthest reaches of the refrigerator. "I could've sworn I put some leftover Chinese in here..." the brunet muttered before pulling his hand back with a frightened squeak. As Sora hastily shoved things back in with a traumatized expression, Riku raised an eyebrow at Roxas, who merely shrugged and continued to eat his rice, figuring Sora had located the month-old lasagna growing tentacles at the very back of the fridge.

"No, not Sephiroth," Riku finally answered, once again fiddling with his hair. "This one's a pyromaniac. Burnt down his kitchen or something and got kicked out. He's not really my cousin, even. Just some kid of an old friend from Mom's school days, but she insists we consider him a member of the family." Riku shook his head as though he found the whole idea ridiculous. "Don't know why Mom and Dad offered to take him in."

With a final glare at the now firmly shut refrigerator, Sora surrendered his search for the Chinese and settled instead for a bowl of cereal. Carrying the carton of milk – only a day past the sell-by date – and a box of Froot Loops to the table, Sora replied, "Your parents are just nice like that. I mean, they let Demyx use the garage for band practice, something no one else is brave enough to do." He grinned mischievously, obviously recalling some of the self-proclaimed musical prodigy's latest work.

Riku nodded absently, grabbing a bowl and two spoons before following his boyfriend to the table and placing a kiss in the midst of his spiky cinnamon hair. "I suppose so."

Sora graced the silver-haired teen with a bright grin that simply screamed love, and Roxas looked away, arguing internally over whether to be mature and silent or throw up. He decided on the former after a few moments, and watched Sora take the bowl from Riku, fill it with the colorful cereal, add some milk, and proceed to eat. Riku managed a few bites before Roxas finished off the last of his rice and stood to throw the empty take-out container away.

"Hey, Riku, I thought you were supposed to be letting your cousin in...?" Roxas ducked his head to hide a smirk when he turned back to the table in time to see Riku's aqua eyes widen comically. The silver-haired teen hastily stood up, gave Sora a quick peck on the lips, and ran out the front door, yelling an agitated "See ya later!" over his shoulder.

Sora stared after his boyfriend miserably for a second before blinking and turning to his twin, pouting. "You just had to remind him." The brunet stuck his tongue out childishly, before his gaze happened to land on the empty Chinese containers lying in the garbage can, and he turned to Roxas accusingly.

Wisely, the blond made a quick exit and escaped to his room, twisting the lock into position before Sora was even out of the kitchen. He chuckled breathlessly for a moment before the final notes of "It's a Small World After All" registered in his ears. Roxas lunged for his cell phone, cursing when the lit up screen showed three missed calls. He flipped it open and pressed talk to call back.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end sounded annoyed, and Roxas almost winced.

"Hey, Hayner... You called?" he responded in a supposed-to-be-calm voice, playing with the zipper of his jacket nervously.

"Roxas."

That tone was not very encouraging, but Roxas answered nonetheless, "Yeah, that's me."

"You ditched me. Again."

Roxas frowned. He made it sound so much worse than it really was. "I, um… I had homework…" he hedged, eyes landing on the abandoned math work from earlier.

"Homework."

"Yes."

"Roxas."

"Hayner." When he got no reply other than some unintelligible noise of anger, he continued, "What?"

"I can't believe you, Roxas! I thought you would understand! You'd think you of all people wouldn't mind, what with your brother and his boyfriend going at each other all the time-"

Roxas interrupted smoothly, trying to keep his tone from becoming angry. "That's different. Riku and Sora are _different_."

Hayner was silent for a second before he replied in a tightly controlled voice, quiet with rage. "Roxas, your brother is gay. No matter how they love each other, they're both still boys, and both gay. Get over it, and stop being such a dick."

And then a click, and Roxas made a face at the phone. His best friend just didn't understand that there was a huge difference between Sora dating Riku, which they'd practically been doing their entire lives, and Hayner suddenly coming out with no warning whatsoever. Roxas had never even seen it coming; his best friend was easily one of the manliest guys he knew – well, except for his love of that lily-scented shampoo he had a weird obsession with, but everyone had their quirks, right?

Not to mention Hayner's method of "coming out" left much to be desired, since he had essentially just waited for poor, clueless Roxas to walk in on Hayner and some asshole named Seifer playing tonsil hockey in the bathroom one day after school.

Nearly a month had passed since that afternoon, and Roxas was still going through great pains to avoid talking to Hayner at all, ignoring any requests (and demands) to hang out. It was just too awkward.

And Roxas was allowed a little while to come to terms with his best friend all of a sudden turning gay, right? _Of course_, he told himself firmly.

A knock at his door interrupted the teen's thoughts, and a beaming Sora walked in without waiting for a response, Roxas wondering vaguely how the brunet had gotten his door unlocked so quickly. The Chinese food incident of moments ago seemed miniscule in comparison to his social issues, so Roxas merely glared at him. "Oh, please, do come in."

The sarcasm was lost on Sora, and, seeing that his twin seemed upset about something, the brunet promptly forgave, forgot, and flopped onto Roxas's bed with a contented sigh, knocking his math homework onto the floor in the process.

"What's up?"

Roxas's glare only intensified. He didn't want to hash out all the gory details with Sora, knowing he'd just get some sincere advice crap about friendship and judging books by their covers in return. He just wanted to be left alone. "Not now, Sora. I'm really not in the mood."

Sora scoffed, clearly unaffected by the younger teen's attempts to brush him off, and instead took the opportunity to pounce on top of Roxas and sit upon his chest triumphantly, ignoring the blond's intense protests.

"What the fuck, Sora? Get off of me!"

"Not until you tell me what's wrong," the brunet sing-songed in reply, bouncing for emphasis.

The more mature twin gave up on struggling and rolled his eyes. "Nothing's up." At Sora's skeptical look, he continued, "At least, nothing I can't handle on my own."

The blond knew that wouldn't fool his twin, but, since the conversation was clearly going nowhere, Sora dropped the issue and his smile returned full force – Roxas had to restrain himself from shielding his eyes.

"Lovely! I hate seeing my younger brother upset!"

Roxas ignored his twin's hyperactive response and sat up, causing the caught-off-guard Sora to tumble to the ground. Suddenly, he remembered his math and decided to take advantage of the Riku-free time so he could finally get help with the damn stuff.

"Actually, Sora, I was having issues with some math that I was hoping you could help me with..." Roxas walked over to his desk and grabbed his book. "It's this stupid quadratic formula. I just can't get it to work–"

A pillow collided quite suddenly with the back of Roxas's head and he turned around to find his twin giving him an incredibly exasperated expression.

"Roxas, dude. You seriously need a girl…"

Roxas snorted. Like he needed to add a whiny, clingy, look-obsessed tramp to add to his always growing list of problems.

"… or maybe a nice, hot guy..." Sora continued, stroking his non-existent mustache thoughtfully.

Roxas's face flushed a vibrant pink and he immediately protested. "Nice try, Sora, but you're the gay one, not me. I'm completely and entirely-"

"Yeah, yeah," Sora interrupted in a disappointed tone, "You're straight."

"As a circle," an amused voice chimed in from the doorway.

"RI-KU!!"

Roxas glared at the silver-haired teenager his brother now clung to happily.

Riku shrugged apologetically, wrapping his arms around a purring Sora contentedly. "Sorry, kid. The truth hurts."

The teen's dark muttering was drowned out by Sora's voice.

"Riku! I'm so glad you're back! I missed you soooo much!" The brunet snuggled happily into his boyfriend's arms and Roxas fought the urge – for the second time tonight – to vomit at their displays of affection.

"Sora, he wasn't even gone half an hour."

The older twin stuck his tongue out rather maturely and turned his attention back to a highly amused Riku. "What about your cousin?"

"We had a bit of a disagreement over whether burning Mom's flower's was appropriate guest etiquette."

Sora's eyes widened, the picture of insulted disbelief "He was setting stuff on fire?"

"Yeah, I know," Riku responded emphatically, eyes narrowing and jaw clenching into a thoroughly pissed off expression. "My parents take him in out of the goodness of their hearts and he responds by starting fires, the very cause of his exile, with no respect to our family or our belongings, not to mention showing that he's exactly the delinquent I suspected him to be all along! How my parents'll react, I've no idea, but rest assured blah blah blah blah..." the teen ranted on, thoroughly annoyed, and both Roxas and Sora tuned out, the former taking another stab at his math homework.

The latter, on the other hand, was staring at his boyfriend with bright, lust-filled eyes, entranced by the (in his opinion) extremely sexy expression of a thoroughly pissed off Riku. Sora suddenly leaned forward and kissed the older boy, effectively cutting off whatever he was saying. Having never grasped the concept of an innocent kiss, Riku soon had the two engaged in a rather passionate make out session...

In Roxas's room.

The oblivious blond found himself presented with a number larger than his exhausted brain could accommodate, and he glanced around distractedly for a calculator. Instead, he found his brother and all-but brother-in-law apparently trying to break the laws of physics and meld their bodies together, the silveret already inching them closer to the bed. Roxas, of course, was not particularly thrilled at this development, and the couple abruptly found themselves pushed into the hallway none-too-gently with a door slammed in their surprised – and vaguely flushed – faces.

They looked at the door, looked at each other, looked at Sora's bedroom door, then looked at each other again. Riku shrugged and swept his giggling boyfriend up bridal-style before proceeding to the smaller teenager's room, no doubt to continue with their previous activities in a less occupied area.


	3. Chapter II

_This re-writing business is hard work, man. Quite a few changes, for those of you who've read this before. Otherwise, enjoy the chapter, and let me know what you think. ^^  
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Waking up to extremely loud and obnoxious pounding at your door to find that you fell asleep while doing homework and managed to drool all over anything you had actually completed is not a pleasant experience. Glancing at your watch to find that your ride would be leaving in ten minutes – with or without you – didn't really make things better.

"Shitshitshitshit..." Roxas cursed under his breath as he flung clothes around in a frenzied attempt to locate something – anything – clean enough to wear for school. He had meant to run a load of wash last night, but had instead passed out – quite contrary to his plans, mind you – not long after Riku and Sora had politely retreated from his room.

"Hey, Rox, aren't you ready yet? Riku's waiting, and you know what happened last time we were running late..." Sora's voice trailed off when he poked his head through the half-open door and realized his brother wasn't listening. After watching the blond for a minute, he waded through the mess of clothes to his twin, avoiding seven socks, three shirts, and a pair of boxers that flew through the air and came dangerously close to his perfectly gelled spikes.

Sora cleared his throat to get the blond's attention. When that didn't work, he coughed. After that failed, the brunet frowned, watching his normally composed twin continue tossing various items over his shoulder, completely oblivious to his presence.

"Roxas!"

Said teen jumped in surprise and shrieked – _shouted, in a manly way_, he amended distractedly – before whirling around to glare at his brother, something that might've been more effective were it not for the argyle sock dangling precariously off a tuft of blond hair.

After taking a moment to stop snickering – during which time Roxas's icy glare only grew colder – Sora tossed him a black t-shirt and pair of jeans he had grabbed from his own closet, more-than-accustomed to Roxas's habit of waking up late every morning.

"Go get ready, and make it fast. Riku's not in a good mood this morning..." (_Is he ever?_ the near-hysterical blond mused.) "I'll pull your stuff together."

Roxas caught the clothes and smiled gratefully. "I'll need my math book and my binder," he instructed before rushing off to the bathroom, mentally calculating how long it would take to brush his teeth, change his clothes, and criticize his hair in the mirror, and wondering whether he was likely to still have a ride when his morning routine was done.

Sora grinned at the now absent blond and busied himself with gathering drool covered paper and – was that a _stab mark? – _textbooks.

Six minutes later, the twins sprinted out of the house, not bothering to lock the door behind them. Riku proceeded to throw what promised to be a spectacular hissy fit, yelling random accusations and grabbing Roxas so he could push his wristwatch into the younger teen's face. His victim fought the urge to squeak in terror – Riku was really terrifying when he was angry.

Thankfully, Sora saved the day by pouncing on Riku and entirely occupying his mouth before too many curses could be yelled for the neighbors to hear – the police had been called before because of one of Riku's temper tantrums, and it was an experience none of them wanted to relive. Were it not for his twin's skill at Riku-distracting, Roxas was sure he'd be walking to school this morning – not something on his list of pleasant experiences.

When the two finally finished their morning make-out session, Roxas was unceremoniously shoved into the back of the car, which would have been fine with him except that some totally unexpected stranger was now sitting inconveniently underneath him. Somehow, he managed to clamber across to the unoccupied side of the car without much more damage than a burning face (and a bruised shin from Riku taking off unexpectedly before he fastened his seatbelt completely).

Thus, Roxas and a redhead that he assumed was Riku's "cousin" were squashed into the backseat of the older teen's tiny convertible, silently listening to Sora's rambling about keys and spaceships, accompanied by the driver's occasional grunt.

Of course, the blond never had had good luck, and the day could, of course, only get worse. Roxas had just begun to formulate a plan to steal Olette's math homework and copy it before class started when a voice interrupted his scheming.

"Hey."

He chose to ignore the greeting; perhaps it had been directed to someone else.

"Hey, kid."

Well, that certainly wasn't addressing him, as Roxas was clearly sixteen and definitely no longer a kid, and the blond relaxed a bit, instead turning his attention to the (very, very rapidly) passing scenery.

"Yo, blondie!"

This salutation was accompanied by a poke in Roxas's side, and the blond took one deep, calming breath before turning politely to his backseat companion and requesting how he might be of service.

... Yeah, right.

Roxas swirled around, fixing his unlucky victim with a piercing glare and all but snarling his reply. "What the fuck do you want?"

His angry response was rewarded with a light chuckle – _a nice sound, indeed,_ some part of Roxas's brain mused distractedly – and the blond sighed angrily, crossing his arms across his chest and waiting for a reply.

"Well, you're just a bag of rainbows and sunshine, aren't you?" The voice was tinted with amusement, and Roxas examined its source suspiciously: big, sparkling green eyes, a pointed, stubborn chin, and the reddest, wildest hair he'd ever seen gave Roxas the immediate impression that Riku's cousin was, in fact, a run-away clown. But only for a moment.

"I'm Axel," the redhead continued, traces of laughter still underlying his words as he watched Roxas examine him, "pyromaniac extraordinaire. Got it memorized?" He finished his introduction with something that would've been a bow had they been standing, but, as it were, his movement looked more like the beginning of childbirth, to Roxas's internal amusement.

"Roxas, twin brother of your cousin's boyfriend," the blond replied grudgingly, looking out the window once more, assuming that was the end of the conversation.

"Ah, so you're Roxas." Axel chuckled again, and Roxas turned back to face him, raising an eyebrow curiously. "Riku was whining about you never leaving him and Sora alone last night."

The younger teenager scowled. That wasn't true. He always tried to avoid getting in their way… If he didn't, they'd just go at it with him there – they'd done it before – and Roxas definitely didn't need to see that again.

"Roxie?"

The teen in question looked up to find Axel's bright green eyes barely half a foot away from his face, and he yelped, scrambling backwards to put more space between them despite the lack of somewhere to go.

Axel laughed again, and Roxas was momentarily distracted by the sound. "Chill, kid. You were spacing out for a second there. Didn't mean to scare you."

Instantly Roxas felt his face heat up, and he hastened to move to his original position in a display of defiance. "It's Roxas, actually, and I wasn't scared, you just... startled me," the blond concluded lamely, glaring at the back of Riku's headrest when Axel only laughed harder.

Thankfully, Riku abruptly braked the car before Roxas could embarrass himself and/or amuse Axel further. The teenager wasted no time in grabbing his bag, hopping out of the car, and immersing himself in the stream of students rushing through the double doors of Twilight Town High.

Roxas sighed in relief, glad to be back in familiar territory. That was quite possibly the most infuriating person he had ever met.

_Yeah, but it was worth it. His eyes were incredible,_ a voice in the back of his head pondered dreamily.

_What the fuck?!_

Roxas scowled, an expression that sent several little freshmen scurrying out of his path. Axel's eyes were not incredible, or stunning, or beautiful, or even particularly nice. They were just an eerily striking shade of green. If anything, they were creepy. As he traded out some books at his locker, the blond relaxed. That was all Axel was, really: eerily striking, and definitely creepy. Hopefully he wouldn't be staying long.

The warning bell rang, interrupting his thoughts, and Roxas once again plunged into the mass of rushing students, letting himself be swept along to his first period class – chemistry, taught by some old quack with a speech impediment and a bad temper. Amazingly, Roxas had the highest average in the class, despite his habit of sleeping the forty-five minutes away each morning.

The teenager slouched contentedly into his desk with a yawn, and was well on his way to a nice, quiet nap when the teacher cleared his throat suddenly, as if that would get his class's attention.

"Students, children, please. We have a new student joining us today." Roxas, half asleep, thought distractedly about how such a hard to understand teacher must be against some school policy, before he managed to make sense of them.

Oh, no. Oh, hell fucking no. Roxas's stomach sank in dread when his traitorous mind exclaimed, _Oh, hell fucking yes!_ at the familiar chuckle coming from the front of the classroom. Cracking one eye open to see the green eyes watching him with obvious amusement was enough to have Roxas pleading with any deity listening to let him wake up from this ridiculous dream-quickly-becoming-nightmare.

"Axel, why don't you tell the class a bit about yourself, and then we'll find you somewhere to sit." The teacher nudged Axel forward encouragingly, and the redhead smirked, eyes never leaving Roxas's.

"Well, I'm Axel, as the man said. I'm a pyromaniac, I have a fetish for short blond kids, and I just moved in next door to Roxas." And his smirk only widened at the now-slouching-as-far-as-possible teen.

Their teacher nodded, obviously sensing nothing wrong with his new student's introduction. "Well then, Axel, why don't you take a seat right there by your new neighbor? I'm sure he'll be glad to help you with anything you don't understand," he added, apparently immune to Roxas's telepathic death rays.

The redhead adjusted his bag's strap on his shoulder before sauntering over and sprawling into the desk right next to Roxas with a bright grin.

"Hey, Roxie!"

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Roxas groaned as he sank gratefully into one of the plastic chairs in the cafeteria. It was finally lunch, and thus far Axel had been in all but one of his classes, and Roxas, of course, had been assigned as the redhead's un-official "new student guide" just as often. The blond groaned again and let his head drop to the table with a dull _thud, _making his tray jerk slightly and his jello wobble precariously.

"Roxas?" someone questioned uncertainly, and the blond looked up, squinting and absently rubbing his now-aching forehead.

"Hayner. Guys. What's up?"

Hayner did not look particularly happy, not that Roxas blamed him after last night's phone call. Pence stood just behind him, fidgeting uncomfortably at the tense atmosphere.

Olette, on the other hand, felt no such trepidation, mostly because she thought the pair's fight was ridiculous and immature, and she answered quickly, cutting off whatever Hayner had opened his mouth to retort with. "Nothing much. Just haven't seen you in a while."

It was true; Roxas hadn't come to lunch in a few weeks, choosing instead to hide out in various classes and rooms.

After a moment Olette sat down beside Roxas and immediately began transferring food to Roxas's tray from her own (she strongly suspected he was on the verge of anorexia, because of all the skipped lunches, and was determined to save her friend) and Hayner and Pence followed suit, hesitantly taking their places across the table. The former, however, refused to take his customary spot across from his former best friend, instead sitting awkwardly on the far side of Pence with a bored façade.

"So," Olette began tentatively, but with growing confidence, "You busy this weekend? I think we should all get together. It's been forever since we hung out."

Roxas looked down guiltily, aware that it was his fault they hadn't hung out in so long, and opened his mouth to suggest they have a movie night over at his house when Hayner suddenly cut him off.

"Actually, Seifer and I have plans. Sorry, Olette." The teen grinned apologetically when the brunette huffed, annoyed.

"We never do anything together anymore," she complained under her breath, before swiping half of Pence's sandwich and munching on it in lieu of the food she'd passed over to Roxas.

Pence watched her eat the sandwich with such a mournful expression that Roxas tried to subtly pass him some of his newly-acquired food to compensate for his loss, but one sharp look from Olette had him quickly moving it back to his own tray.

A few minutes passed in awkward silence until Olette elbowed Roxas in the stomach, giving him a pointed look.

"So Seifer's taking up a lot of your time, huh?" The teen asked Hayner tensely, rubbing at his now-aching side. He figured they could manage to have a not-so-angry conversation about Hayner's... new friend.

"Yeah," Hayner replied heatedly, ignoring Pence's wide-eyed stare and Olette's reprimanding look. "He's my boyfriend, remember?" He put what was in Roxas's opinion unnecessary emphasis on the word boy.

Forgetting his early idea of making peace, Roxas pinned his supposed friend with a fiery glare. "Yeah, I get it, you're gay, whatever. But do you have to spend so much time together? He's such an asshole and you used to hate him! What happened that made you sudd-"

"ROXIE!" A shout from behind the group cut Roxas off and he turned to find Axel waving an arm energetically and dodging several disgruntled student as he fought his way to their table. The blond groaned in utmost agony, cursing the school's weak plastic knives; they were certainly not strong enough for a decent attempt at suicide, much less murder.

"Who's that?" Olette asked curiously, staring at the redhead getting steadily closer to their table; it was rare for Roxas to talk with anyone besides their group and his twin, and for someone to like Roxas enough to search him out... Well, it was odd, to say the least.

The apparent exception to the rule finally reached the group and dropped his backpack onto the table before slouching confidently (which Roxas wasn't sure was possible, but if it was, then Axel had just done it) into the only empty seat – across from the now severely red-faced blond, of course.

Ignoring several gaping stares – that hair _had_ to break some fundamental laws of nature – the green-eyed teenager smiled brightly at his new neighbor.

"Roxie, darling, I hope you don't mind if I sit here; it's just so much harder to stare at you from across the cafeteria. Oh!" Axel dug around in his book bag for a second before emerging triumphantly, a half-melted ice cream bar in one hand, which he promptly offered to Roxas. "Here, for the help in chemistry. And math. And English."

When Roxas made no move to accept the ice cream, which was rapidly dissolving into a puddle of blue goo on the table as the redhead moved it side-to-side in a supposed-to-be enticing manner, Axel continued in a sing-song tone, "It's sea-salt, your favorite flavor."

Before the blond could say that he did mind if he sat there and that he'd done nothing in their shared classes but ignore the redhead to the best of his ability, or demand to know how on earth Axel knew his favorite flavor of ice cream, and did he just say _staring? – _Olette cleared her throat and held out her hand, a confident smile gracing her delicate features. "Hi, I'm Olette, one of Roxas's friends. I don't believe we've been introduced before."

Her friendly smile faltered when Axel dropped the remains of the poor ice cream onto the table and took her proffered hand with his own sticky one, but it was soon back and accompanied by a bright blush when the redhead kissed the back of her hand and smiled charmingly.

"A lovely name for a lovely girl. I'm Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" The brunette laughed, delighted, before Roxas finally found his tongue, torn between being angry at the redhead interrupting his argument and mourning the loss of the entirely innocent sea-salt ice cream.

"Cut the crap, Axel. What do you want?"

"Why, nothing but the knowledge that I am sitting so near to my darling beloved, and that he will tolerate my presence for but a few minutes of the day."

Roxas's continued glare prompted another smirk from Axel, as well as another response.

"Aw, Roxie, baby, can't I sit here? After all, it_ is _my first day, and you're the _only_ person I know, besides Sora and Riku, but heaven knows they don't want _me_ getting in their way..." His features appeared genuinely wounded, except, of course, for his green eyes, which sparkled with mirth.

Roxas frowned when Olette once again answered for him, reaching out to pat one of Axel's large hands reassuringly, her voice full of sympathy. "Of course you can sit here, for as long as you want. Isn't that right, Roxas?"

The blond in question mumbled something unintelligible but quickly responded more coherently at Olette's sharp look, "Sure. Why not?"

The girl chose to ignore the blatant sarcasm and smiled brightly at Axel, who was chuckling softly, all previous traces of anguish now gone.

_What a gorgeous sound... So dark and seductive..._ Roxas caught himself halfway through a nod of agreement. Where had _that_ come from?

After mentally smacking his forehead in an attempt to get rid of such traitorous (not to mention dangerous) thoughts, Roxas tuned back into reality to find Axel and Olette chatting comfortably, with Hayner and Pence throwing in a comment every once in a while. It figures, that Axel would manage to get his friends to love him. Something Axel said caught his attention and he glanced up in a trying-to-be-a-sneaky-ninja way.

"Yeah, actually," the redhead was saying, "my ex moved out here a couple years ago. That's why we broke up. Couldn't handle the long distance relationship, I suppose." The teenager shrugged nonchalantly, and Roxas barely had time to look away before Axel turned to gauge his reaction. The younger teen watched Axel's eyes narrow in the reflection of a nearby window before he turned his attention back to Olette.

"Really?" Olette asked, interested. "Who's your ex? I might know her."

Axel laughed loudly. "His name is Demyx," the redhead answered with a smirk. Olette and Hayner suddenly turned to see Roxas's reaction, much as Axel had a moment ago, and the former nudged him hard in the side, making sure he heard. He refused to give her any hint of emotion, however, and began poking at his jello as though it were the most amazing substance on earth... which it very well might be, for that matter.

"Demyx?" Hayner asked incredulously after rolling his eyes at Roxas's immature behavior. "_The_ Demyx? Weird mullet-faux hawk combo and creepy obsession with water Demyx?" At Axel's wary nod, the blond continued, "No way! His band uses Riku's basement for practice!"

Groaning, Axel replied, "Please don't tell me he still wants to be a rock star..."

Roxas stopped listening at that point, exasperated. Was everybody turning gay all of a sudden? Honestly! Sora and Riku he could handle, but Hayner, Axel, and even Demyx and Seifer?

After a few moments of bemoaning the agony that was his life like a total emo kid, the blond found his gaze drawn to Axel as he told a story about something crazy Demyx and he had done before he moved away, much to his friends' amusement.

The redhead had angled features and a tall, almost lanky body that he somehow made look graceful while walking – not that Roxas had been watching, of course. His eyes were intense and always sparkling, and were those _tattoos_? The blond couldn't believe he hadn't noticed those before.

Suddenly, the hypnotic green eyes were looking straight at him, filled with amusement, curiosity, and something else he couldn't quite identify. When Axel raised one delicate eyebrow, Roxas averted his gaze, mentally cursing his rapidly reddening face.

Olette let her sentence trail off when she realized Axel was no longer paying attention, and, following his line of vision, was surprised to find a very much so blushing Roxas staring fixedly at the table as though it held all the secrets of the universe on its dirty, scratched surface.

Hayner, following everyone else's gaze, was the first to speak, concerned despite his anger with the teen. "Roxas, buddy, you okay?"

The smaller blond looked up, obviously distracted. "Yeah, fine." He smiled halfheartedly, not fooling anybody. As Olette opened her mouth to inquire further, the bell rang for end of lunch and Roxas forced out a quick "See ya later, guys," before dashing off to his next class, leaving behind three confused teens and one very intrigued redhead.

----

Roxas fought his way through the halls to his locker, pushing past a group of slow walking jocks and ignoring the catcalls that followed him; he was, after all, the infamous Sora's brother, and everyone assumed... Well, it wasn't important.

He changed his course of thought, reflecting back on the remainder of the school day. His last two periods had passed quickly and Axel-free, much to his relief. Axel was confusing, and Roxas didn't like being confused.

When the teen's locker came into sight, he had to bite back a groan. Sure, he shared the locker with Hayner, and they were back on somewhat-friendly terms, but did the blond have to bring _him_ along? After adjusting his book bag decisively, Roxas continued to the locker, trying to appear nonplussed.

Hayner was spoke first, his voice sounding too loud in the otherwise empty hallway. "Hey, Roxas. You know Seifer?" Despite his attempts to sound casual, the way his eyes nervously flickered between the other two betrayed his anxiety about the situation.

Taking pity on his best friend, Roxas forced out a smile. "Yeah, we've met before." He raised an eyebrow at the bully. It was true; Seifer had been the one to relieve Roxas of his lunch money for the majority of sixth grade.

Seifer gaze Roxas a cool stare before hooking his arms around Hayner from behind. "You ready to go, babe?"

The blond in question grinned at Roxas, mouthing a silent_ thank you _at the smaller teenager. "Yeah, let's go." And, with one last apologetic glance back at Roxas, he was led away and the blond was alone once more.

Frowning, Roxas entered the combination and stuffed his books into the locker. He wouldn't have nearly so much of an issue with this if Hayner had picked anyone but _Seifer_. There was no way that asshole was good enough for his best friend, and Roxas didn't want to see Hayner hurt, which was bound to happen in the long run.

His thoughts were interrupted for what must have been the fortieth time that day by a shout from the end of the hall. "Roxas!" The blond turned exhaustedly to see Sora bounding towards him, ignoring the angry looks several teachers were sending his way. The brunet finally reached his twin, face flushed from the short sprint. "Hey, Roxas, you ready to leave? Riku wants to take me to a movie, so we've gotta get you and Axel home quick so we won't be late." The brunet was grinning widely in anticipation of his date.

Roxas slammed the locker shut with an affirmation and let his twin lead him through the school and to Riku's car, where the silver haired teen was waiting, arms crossed and foot tapping, impatient as ever. Twilight Town didn't have a cinema, so they would have to drive out to Traverse or Radiant Garden for the movie, and either was at least a 45 minute drive away. Of course, as it was rush hour, they would have to account for the traffic, so leaving at four for a movie starting at seven was almost understandable, as the couple would probably want to eat before the show. On the other hand, it was probably just Riku being his usual anal self.

Said teenager growled, flipping his silver hair out of his face impatiently. "Where's Axel? We've gotta go." As the silver haired teen continued to rant about irresponsible pyromaniacs and the world conspiring to keep him from his Sora, Roxas turned to look back at the school's entrance, and as such was the first to see Axel walk out, talking to a short blond with something of a cross between a mullet and a mohawk. Sora noticed the pair walking towards them a second later and yelled, "Axel, come on! You're gonna make us late for the movie!"

The redhead glanced up, surprised, but grinned when he saw the group waiting for him. He yelled back something unintelligible and with a quick hug and peck on the cheek to Demyx, he jogged towards the car, reaching it in no time with his long legs. Axel winked at Roxas before clambering into the car to escape Riku's glare – which, Roxas could admit, was just the slightest bit more intimidating than his own. The teen followed Axel into the back seat and soon the car was pulling out of the school, Riku honking and yelling at anyone in his way.

"So," Roxas said quietly, surprising both Axel and himself. The blond almost never initiated conversations, as Axel had no doubt noticed throughout the course of the day. "You and Demyx getting back together?"

Roxas frowned, tempted to reach up and poke his lips experimentally. He hadn't meant to ask that at all...

Sora, demonstrating his amazing hearing ability, looked back at Axel curiously. "You went out with Demyx?" The brunet's eyes were comically wide, as though he couldn't believe that anyone would be able to handle the loud and energetic blond (who, Roxas thought with a smirk, was ten times better than what Riku had to put up with).

"Yeah," Axel replied, an odd expression on his face, "back before he moved out here."

Sora was suddenly distracted by a particularly violent and colorful curse from his boyfriend, and the small teen turned back just in time to twist the steering wheel sharply to the left so they narrowly escaped a certainly fatal crash with a semi-truck. Roxas groaned – such happenings were rather commonplace during the drive home, especially when Riku was in a hurry – and put on his seatbelt, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Axel did the same.

There was silence for a while after that, except for the occasional exclamations from Riku and soothing words of Sora. And though the silence was certainly comfortable for Axel, Roxas was in agony; the redhead hadn't answered his question, and the smaller teen was inexplicably burning with curiosity.

Finally, after more near-death encounters than Roxas would like to think about, Riku swerved into his driveway, just missing the mailbox, and the blond scrambled to get out of the car first. The driver got out a moment later, having turned off the car, and he raised an eyebrow at the very white and slightly trembling blond. "What's wrong with you?"

Axel came around the car and looped an arm around Roxas's shoulder, ignoring the look of detest he received. "I think you might have taken some of those turns a little too fast for poor Roxie here," the redhead answered with a squeeze, and the teen caught himself mid-pout; why did people insist on answering for him?

Suddenly, Sora appeared from out of nowhere and jumped onto Riku's back. "Hurry up, I wanna see a movie!" He pounded childishly on Riku's head with a fist before, in some amazing display of strength and agility, the larger teen somehow pulled Sora around and into his arms.

Of course, this led to an impromptu snog session.

Axel looked surprised and more than a little amused. "Do they always just start making out like that?"

"Yeah," Roxas answered, his voice laced with a fine edge of annoyance. "As often as possible, wherever they are, whoever they're with."

When Axel didn't reply, the blond looked up, curiosity overcoming his better senses, and saw him watching the pair thoughtfully. "Think we could try that?" he asked, voice sincerely hopeful.

The kissing couple was interrupted by a loud _smack_, and they were surprised to find Axel laughing. Still clutching his stinging cheek, the redhead watched with amusement as Roxas stomped angrily across the yard and into his house.


	4. Chapter III

_I'm sorry this is a little late. I meant to have it up yesterday, but I was up at five yesterday morning to volunteer so I could get a Disney ticket, and then I had to drive three hours to see my mom, and then three hours back. Loooooong day. So yeah. I don't really remember what I changed in this, if I changed anything, so just... have at it! :D _

_Oh, and by the way. I LOVE YOU IF YOU STORY ALERT THIS, BUT I SEND YOU WORSHIPFUL REPLIES IF YOU REVIEW. :D That's all. I've only gotten three reviews since re-posting this. Thirty one of those are from last time. . And here I thought the story was better now. _

_

* * *

  
_

The sun rose bright and cheery the following day and Roxas groaned, rolling over and burying his face beneath his blankets before drifting back to sleep, frowning against the unwelcome intrusion of light. With a contented sleepy noise the blond pulled his favorite pillow closer, slowly falling back to sleep…

_RAHWR RAHWR RAHWR RAHWR RAHWR_

And his alarm clock went off, followed almost immediately by his back-up alarm clock; both were kicked at repeatedly until the obnoxious noise finally cut off with a half-hearted squeak. Five minutes later, when his get-your-ass-out-of-bed-_this-instant _alarm started up with its even louder and more persistently blaring noise, Roxas grabbed the cord and yanked it from the wall, still half-asleep.

Of course, no one could sleep through the ungodly noises that began drifting from his brother's bedroom barely five minutes later, and the blond finally surrendered, stumbling out of bed and making his way to the bathroom, muttering dark curses under his breath the entire way.

Roxas emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, hair still dripping from his (near boiling) shower, bright-eyed and ready to face the day... Well, grudgingly prepared for school, at least.

Thus, when Sora and Riku finally made their way into the kitchen, looking more-or-less ready to go and sporting identical grins, Roxas was already sitting at the table and nursing a steaming cup of coffee.

Said blond arched an eyebrow at their entrance; Sora blushed and Riku at least had the decency to look slightly contrite.

"You snuck over again." He commented, entirely emotionless, and Sora backed behind his boyfriend nervously. Riku merely watched Roxas warily.

The blond teen made a face, knowing that there really wasn't anything he could do about it. It wasn't as if his mother had specifically forbidden it, and she wasn't here to back him up, anyway. The teenager settled for a pointed glare, hoping that the pair didn't think they were getting off the hook too easily.

Seeing that the worst had passed, Sora reappeared from behind Riku, bright grin once more taking reign over his face, and the brunet happily pounced on Roxas – who was, of course, still holding a _very_ hot cup of coffee.

* * *

"What happened to your hand?"

Roxas looked down at the offending appendage, which was a vivid shade of pink-ish red and throbbed painfully, before choosing to ignore the question. Anyone with half a brain could clearly see it was burned.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you not to play with fire?" the voice held a hint of teasing, and Roxas turned to look at Axel incredulously, recalling what exactly had gotten the redhead sent to live with Riku in the first place.

"Like you're one to talk? And I wasn't playing with fire. Sora spilled hot coffee on me."

Axel looked at the brunet boy sitting in the front of the car, bouncing in his seat and chattering about nothing whatsoever, occasionally breaking into song.

"You give him coffee? That explains a lot." The redhead looked slightly disturbed, and Roxas frowned.

"No, of course he doesn't drink coffee... at least, not without fifteen packets of sugar and a cup or two of creamer." He ignored Axel's sniggering and concluded with, "It was my coffee," hoping that would be the end of their conversation.

For some reason, however, that only seemed to amuse the older teenager even more. "Aren't you too young to drink coffee? I thought only angsty college kids drank that crap."

Roxas stared at Axel in disbelief, his annoyance growing. "What are you talking about? A lot of people drink coffee." He paused a moment, then, "And I'm barely any younger than you."

"You're an entire seventeen months younger than me," the redhead replied with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "and I don't drink coffee."

Roxas stared at him for a moment, only slightly concerned about how Axel already knew his birthday, before returning to his previous act of blowing on his (still) hot hand and absentmindedly mouthing along when Sora belted out "A Pirate's Life for Me."

Axel, accordingly, returned to his previous act of doing whatever it took to get Roxas's attention, which included anything from staring to poking to licking.

The younger teenager scowled as the car finally pulled to a stop and he climbed out quickly, rubbing fiercely at his cheek. Honestly, just because Roxas had stuck one burnt finger into his mouth to cool it off didn't mean Axel had permission to _lick_ him, of all things.

The blond walked quickly towards the school, figuring he could lose his self-proclaimed stalker in the mass of students streaming into the building. Of course, Roxas's furious stalk was no match for Axel's long legs, and the redhead caught up in no time.

"Roxie?" the voice was curious, slightly amused, and _right in his ear_, which sent shivers racing down said blond's spine. He shot the redhead an annoyed glare.

"It's _Roxas_." The cold tone had no more effect on Axel than the words spoken and he laughed obnoxiously. _Does he __always__ have to laugh like that?!_ the blond asked himself, half-exasperated, half-pleased. After all, it was such a nice laugh, all dark and mysterious...

Roxas pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind where they rightfully belonged, and instead focused on the sudden sensation that he was being watched. He turned to see Axel had stopped about five feet behind him and had the most peculiar look in his jade eyes.

"What are you doing?" the blond deadpanned, wondering why he hadn't just kept walking. It wasn't like the other teen deserved any better.

"Staring at your ass, which I'll admit was much easier before you turned around, so if you could..." The redhead made a twirling motion with his finger and looked so serious that Roxas almost wanted to laugh. Almost.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Roxas screeched, voice jumping octaves in his frustration.

With a smirk, Axel strutted up to the blond until he was forced to look up to meet his gaze. _He's really tall_, Roxas thought absently, realizing that the highest tips of his spikes barely reached his chin.

"You're cute," Axel said in a low and solemn tone, raising one hand to stroke the smaller teen's cheek lightly.

The blond found himself paralyzed, so confused as he was by the situation, and, after a moment, Axel grinned and planted a light peck in the midst of his spiky hair before stepping around Roxas and sauntering off with a casual "See you, Roxie."

_Now who's staring at whose ass?_ The voice in the back of his head commented triumphantly.

"Shaddup," Roxas muttered under his breath before glancing at his watch and setting off for first period, thoroughly confused. Of course, halfway there he remembered who was in his class and swore loudly, earning himself a glare and reprimand from a nearby teacher.

He slipped into the classroom right as the bell rang, having loitered on the way there to prolong the inevitable. Refusing to look at the redhead he knew was watching him, Roxas sat in his desk and settled down for his regular morning nap.

"We're going to the lab today, so get your things together."

The blond groaned, sending mental darts directly through his teacher's skull. Could nothing go right today? He joined in with the class trudging across the hall to the lab, hoping that he could snag a partner that would do all the work and let him sleep.

The teacher directed them to a workstation as they walked in, and Roxas was, of course, put with Axel at a table near the back of the room. Choosing not to pay attention to the teacher's instruction's, the blond merely watched distractedly as his partner set up the experiment and grabbed the box of matches with an excited expression...

Matches? Wait, wasn't Axel a pyroma-

"AXEL!!"

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Roxas stalked out of the principal's office, fuming. How had _he_ gotten detention for Axel's stupidity?

The redhead, in what Roxas suspected must be a typical display of complete idiocy, had decided to see what the solution they were supposed to put in an ice bath would do if he dropped a lit match on it. The resulting explosion had, thankfully, been small and harmless, but the fumes it released were dangerous and the class had had to evacuate the room quickly. Their teacher, speechless with rage, had banished the pair to the principal's office – after throwing several erasers at them in anger, of course.

Absently, Roxas rubbed at his forehead where a particularly heavy eraser had probably left a bruise. Seeing Axel sitting in one of the plastic blue chairs reserved for "behavioral issues" only contributed to his headache, and he grit his teeth in frustration, debating whether stabbing his dumb, sparkling eyes out was worth the year's worth of detention he was bound to receive. The idea was so entrancing that his hand twitched when he saw a particularly well-sharpened Ticonderoga number two, but his conscience kicked in at the last second, and he instead stormed angrily toward the door, refusing to acknowledge the other teen at all.

But, once again, Axel's ridiculously long legs foiled Roxas's plan, and the redhead was blocking the exit by the time he was halfway across the room.

"God fucking damn it, Axel, haven't you caused me enough trouble for one day? Just leave me the hell alone!" Roxas snarled angrily, attempting to duck past the redhead before he could completely skip the pencil idea and just the strangle him with his bare hands.

The redhead looked completely taken aback for a second before his green eyes grew wide with innocent hurt, giving Roxas the distinct impression of a rejected puppy. "Are you mad at me?"

The teen in question began to angrily respond that yes, he was furious, and he had better move this second or so help him – but then Axel's lip began to quiver, and Roxas's mind went completely blank. Confused, he frowned, shut his mouth, and opened it to try again... with no better luck.

Finally, he managed to get out a reply, running a hand through his hair in defeat. "I guess not."

And then, quite suddenly, and with no recollection of how exactly he came to be in such a position, Roxas found himself pressed against the wall by a firm body and trapped by two arms, with a rather passionate redhead kissing his way up his neck.

_Mmm..._ The cursed voice in Roxas's mind sighed in contentment, and for once he couldn't help but agree as one of Axel's hands snaked its way under his shirt and the other curled possessively around the base of his neck, pulling him closer. Before he realized what, exactly, he was doing, Roxas had reached up and fisted Axel's shirt, tipping his head back ever-so-slightly in silent invitation.

Then, a new – or previously silent – voice appeared in his head, frantically waving its arms and yelling, _What_ _the hell are you doing?! You're straight, remember?! _

Oh, yeah.

With newfound strength (and inward sobs of despair), Roxas used his grip on Axel's shirt to push the redhead away roughly (because that's why he'd grabbed it in the first place, he firmly told himself). Axel went without protest, the ever-present sparkle in his eyes more intense than Roxas had ever seen it before.

"Axel, I like girls," the blond said slowly, as though speaking to a particularly stupid child, ignoring both the voice moaning in agony and the voice cheering him on, sure signs that he might be losing his mind.

The redhead smirked, as if he could see the internal battle taking place behind Roxas's eyes. "Of course you do, Roxie."

The blond, having no response to that, scowled, before shooting a quick, "It's _Roxas,_" at Axel as he tried again to leave the room. This time his attempt was met with no resistance, and he didn't know whether to be glad or upset as he walked down the hall, away from the office.

Inside the room, Axel's grin only widened. "Straight, my ass," he muttered, before heading out the door as well. This would be fun.

After the frustrating and confusing events of morning, Roxas couldn't bear the thought of sitting through three more classes with _him_, and decided to skip the rest of the day. Even after taking several shortcuts through backyards (and barely escaping a nasty confrontation with a vicious dog), it took Roxas over half an hour to reach his house, but he didn't mind the long walk half as much as the voices in his head that bickered over the one thing Roxas was determined to never think about again.

"Can't you two just be quiet?" Roxas hissed angrily as he stepped into his house, practically slamming his backpack onto the floor in annoyance.

"Roxas, honey? Is that you?"

He looked up, surprised, before making a face and trudging into the living room. "Yeah, it's me."

His mother was sitting in an armchair, legs curled underneath her and one delicate finger holding her spot in a book. She looked tired, Roxas noted with a mental curse to his father, wherever the bastard might be. He couldn't remember the last time his mother had appeared completely rested; not since she had been left to care for two teenagers on her own, that's for sure.

"What's wrong? Why are you home early?" Each question grew more frantic, until the final one was practically a screech. "Are you sick? Is Sora okay? Did something happen to Riku?" A pregnant pause, then, "Did you walk all the way home, Roxas? When you're sick?!" the brunette demanded in her typical motherly fashion, setting her book down and standing, hands on hips.

Roxas watched his mother freak out fondly, noting how pretty she looked even when she was pissed off. Her hair, the same shade as Sora's, was pulled into a messy mass on top of her head, secured with a pen that had lost hold of several strands which framed her lovely, if exhausted, face. She pushed them away with an impatient flick of her wrist and glared at her son, who replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I walked home, and no, I'm not sick. Sora and Riku are fine, as always. I just didn't want to stick around for the rest of the day."

Aerith, instead of being appeased by his responses, stared at Roxas for a moment, her pretty eyes narrowed; she didn't condone skipping and, with the help of Riku's parents' watchful eyes, made sure Roxas and Sora always went to school while she was working. Thus far they had never disappointed her, so after a moment she decided to give her son the benefit of the doubt. Surely he wouldn't leave school in the middle of the day without a good reason.

To Roxas's intense relief, Aerith finally smiled, her eyes crinkling warmly. "So," she began, settling down into her chair once more, while the teen sprawled on the couch. "What's up? And shoes off the furniture, please."

Roxas kicked his sneakers off and settled back into his reclining position, but, after getting the disturbing feeling that he was talking to a shrink, readjusted to an awkward sitting position before he replied,"It's nothing. Just a particularly bad day. I've got detention tomorrow, actually." He grudgingly tacked on with a scowl before continuing under his breath, "Stupid Axel."

His mother, sharing her brunet son's scarily acute sense of hearing, perked up at his words. "Axel? That boy who moved in with Riku's family?" At Roxas's confused affirmation, she squealed, much to her son's growing horror. "I saw him late last night, when I got home. He was outside, smoking--" here she frowned, in disapproval of the habit, "And I stopped to talk to him for a moment. He's such a charming boy, and rather handsome... Are you two getting along, then?" The last was asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes that made the tired lines on her face melt away.

Roxas had never seen his mother look so much like Sora, and, to be honest, he was a little scared. "I suppose you could say that," he replied warily. As long as Axel wasn't being a pyromaniac, molesting Roxas, or annoying the hell out of the poor boy (notably, such a situation had yet to present itself).

Aerith looked absolutely thrilled. She smiled in a maliciously sweet way, fixing the blond with a cryptic gaze, obviously aware of something he had yet to discover. "Axel's a good kid. I'm sure you two will get along just _famously_ before long." Her eyes took on a faraway look, as if plotting some evil scheme.

Roxas frowned at his mother's suddenly freaky manner and subconsciously scooted away from her, eyes wide. "Mom…? Are you… um… okay?" he asked with an audible gulp.

Aerith blinked at her son, caught off guard, and was once more the beautiful, caring, and never sneaky or manipulative person Roxas knew and loved.

"Of course I'm okay, honey," she replied as if her son must be delusional to think otherwise, and then stood and headed into the kitchen, continuing as she went, "You hungry? I'm on the graveyard shift tonight, so I can make you some lunch... Let's see, we've got... peanut butter... Cocoa Puffs and Froot Loops... some spoiled milk... a can of Diet Pepsi..." Her voice trailed off and she poked her head back into the living room. "Roxas, hon', where's all our food? I just went grocery shopping." Her brows were drawn together, sincerely puzzled.

"That was over a month ago, Mom," he replied in an off-hand manner, following Aerith into the kitchen. "We've been eating take-out a lot lately – or at Riku's." When she began to look worried, he hastened to continue, "Oh, it wasn't any problem for them; you know they never mind. Not to mention, Riku likes the company." He made a face and his mother laughed.

"Alright... As long as they had some extra food, I suppose it doesn't matter." She hesitated then, "I can go shopping this afternoon, I think...." Aerith bit her lip nervously, and Roxas could all but see her mentally calculating whether or not they could afford enough groceries to make the trip worthwhile.

The blond smoothly interrupted her thought process with a supposed-to-be-reassuring shrug. "Don't worry about it, Mom, we're doing fine. You should get some sleep before you go in, okay?" He didn't wait for a reply, instead turning to head back through the house. "I'll be doing homework in my room for a bit."

Aerith frowned after her son, clearly not buying the act, but more than aware that, between groceries and the mortgage, she really didn't have a choice.

* * *

Several hours later, Roxas was happily immersed in a pleasant dream that would have him blushing for hours when he recalled it. Something landing painfully on his stomach, however, made absolutely no sense in those particular circumstances, prompting him to groan and roll over in annoyance, making the whatever-it-was land on the floor with a muffled yelp.

_Wait... Huh?_

Blearily, Roxas opened his eyes and peered over the edge of the bed to find his own eyes staring back at him.

"Sora?"

"Roxas?"

The latter teenager blinked and stared at Sora, puzzled. "Who else would be in my bed?"

Without missing a beat the brunet grinned. "Well, I'm sure a certain someone wouldn't mind..."

Roxas feigned confusion, flopping back onto the bed and pulling a pillow over his rapidly reddening face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Sora's reply was muffled by the pillow pressing against Roxas's ears. "Well, I happened to hear from Riku, who heard from Tidus, who heard from Girl-Rikku, who heard from Selphie, who heard from Yuffie, who heard from Olette," he took a second to catch his breath, by which point Roxas had already removed the pillow in awe of Sora's gossip-tracking abilities, "– that a certain redhead seemed pretty worried when he realized you'd left school early," he concluded triumphantly.

Roxas stared.

"Don't worry," Sora answered without waiting for Roxas to ask, "I spread it back around that you were just feeling a little sick and went home to get some rest."

Roxas put a hand to his forehead, feeling dizzy just from trying to follow Sora's sentence. "Uh, thanks, Sora," he responded uncertainly.

"No problem," said brunet grinned and bounced onto the bed beside Roxas, who pulled his hand back a split second too late to avoid it being crushed. Sora, of course, either didn't notice or didn't care, and continued eagerly. "So, what's going on between you and Axel, anyway?"

"Besides me wishing him to the deepest circle of hell to burn for an eternity," Roxas responded vehemently, effectively distracted from the pain, "absolutely nothing."

His twin wrinkled his nose in the adorable way that always earned him a kiss from Riku. "That's nothing? Seriously? Sheesh. You're so _naïve_ sometimes, Rox." When the blond gave no response other than a snort of indignation, Sora continued sagely, "Well, you never know what could happen tomorrow."

Roxas opened one eye and looked at his twin, eyes once again narrowed in suspicion. "What's happening tomorrow?"

Sora appeared offended. "What do you mean, 'what's happening tomorrow?' It's _Friday_."

Roxas blinked, and the brunet sighed dramatically, throwing his hands in the air with exasperation. "Demyx and the band are throwing a rehearsal slash party thingy tomorrow night. They're getting ready for a gig this weekend."

That got a response. "Demyx's band actually got a _gig_?" Roxas stared at his twin in complete disbelief.

"Hey, don't be so mean! They're not half bad, really..." The brunet trailed off feebly.

"Not half bad? Sora, Demyx's last 'masterpiece' was called 'Clam Chowder in my Pants!'" the blond exclaimed.

To be honest, Roxas didn't have that must experience with the band, dubbed "The Wave" this week. The people who played in the band were all insanely creepy – and quite possibly serial murderers, for that matter.

"Actually, they should be getting tons better" Sora interrupted Roxas' thoughts, "They found some twins to write their lyrics for them."

"Twins?" Roxas inquired, caught off guard. After all, Twilight Town wasn't exactly a large city, and, as far as he knew, he and Sora were the only twins around...

"Yeah. Kairi and Namine. You remember Kairi, right?"

Roxas groaned as the memories came rushing back to him. Who wouldn't remember Kairi? She had stayed with her grandmother, their neighbor (on the left; Riku was on the right), for her eighth and ninth grades. The annoyingly _pink _girl had somehow gotten it into her head that Sora loved her. Needless to say, that hadn't gone over well with Riku at all, and the whole incident had eventually caused the friends to become a couple... after Kairi moved back in with her family on Destiny Islands, of course.

"She's moving back over here? The whole family?"

Sora shot his twin a weird look. "Roxas, they moved in right down the street last weekend. You didn't notice? I was going to invite the girls over, but Riku wanted some alone time..."

The blond snorted. _Alone time_, he mused. _More like, wait-until-that-bitch-moves-back-out time, huh, Riku?_

"Anyways. Yeah, Luxord had to hire them after they beat him at Go Fish seven out of nine times..." Here Sora looked confused for a moment before the grin once again took over his face. "So, you're going, right?"

It took Roxas a moment to remember what his suffering-from-ADHD twin was referring to, and when he did, he whined, "Do I have to?"

Sora pouted. "Yes! Pretty please? You'll have fun! I think Pence and Olette are coming, and Axel will be there, and he really wanted to see you..." the brunet trailed off hopefully.

Well, he did owe Pence and Olette, after the month long fight, and then for ditching them today... Figuring that he could just avoid his redheaded stalker, Roxas sighed melodramatically. "Yeah, I'll go. But you owe me."

At that moment, a shout was heard from another part of the house. "Sora! Where are you?" The sound of Riku's voice had said brunet off Roxas's bed and out the door in no time flat, leaving Roxas to drop back into some semblance of sleep, attempting to ignore the mysterious banging coming from his twin's room.


	5. Chapter IV

_Look, I'm updating early! Yay! :D A few things before I send you off: First off, this chapter's a little shorter than the others, I know, but it's also a bit of a filler chapter. The real fun begins in the next chapter. Second, I've officially run out of pre-written material, but I'll still try to keep this story updated about once a week. We'll see. Third, I've got some slightly vague references toward the end. People who know what I'm talking about get hugs. _

_Also, REVIEW! I can't tell you how much easier it was to wrap up this chapter with six happy reviewers cheering me on! _

_Alright then, off you go.  
_

* * *

The following morning Roxas was abruptly pulled from sleep when a spectacular fit of sneezing and coughing (something Sora fondly referred to as snoughing) began to rack his body. The blond struggled out of his room, blinking back tears as the harsh coughs continued, sending his admittedly small frame into convulsions. After much stumbling and not a few stubbed toes, he reached the bathroom and, with some effort, managed to down a glass of cool water, in hopes of soothing his burning throat.

Unsurprisingly, Sora appeared in the doorway seconds later, wide-eyed and worried as he watched the blond fight back another fit of snoughs.

"Jeez, Rox, what's going on? I thought you were _faking_ sick."

The blond in question laughed dryly for a second before stopping at the sudden pain it brought on, face contorted into a grimace. "Yeah, I thought I was, too." Roxas sighed, pushing gently past Sora and into the kitchen, where he proceeded to rummage through various cabinets irritably, pausing only to sneeze or cough. It wasn't long before the teenager began to feel dizzy, and he sank miserably into a kitchen chair with a pathetic sniff, letting his twin continue the search for medication in his stead.

Some amount of time later (Roxas wasn't sure exactly how much; he highly suspected that he had drifted off whilst waiting), the brunet emerged from the cabinets clutching one bottle – a medley of colorful little capsules of various shapes and sizes, from Tylenol to Benadryl to Tums. Sora offered him a sheepish grin; he had, a few months ago, gone on an eliminate-plastic crusade – no doubt inspired by some video shown in his biology class – and he had disposed of all but the most commodious container, stuffing every pill they possessed into it.

Now, Roxas was certainly for saving the trees and all that jazz, but when it led to him either foregoing medication or risking OD-ding – as, of course, there were no labels remaining to tell which pill fixed what or how many capsules were recommended to cure what Roxas believed was certain to develop into the infamous, ever-common cold – well, quite frankly, the environment could go fuck itself, in Roxas's eloquent opinion.

He heard Sora set down the bottle with a rattling clunk and then the brunet was giving him one of his world-famous shoulder massages, effectively working out all the stress of the past two days. Within moments, Roxas's irritation had dissipated and his anger at Sora's stupid, eco-friendly self was abated, much to said brunet's relief.

After basking in the attention for a bit, Roxas shrugged off his twin's hands with a contented sigh-cough, opening eyes he couldn't quite remember closing – and sneezing abruptly and violently, of course.

Sora chuckled, handing him a tissue and settling into the adjacent chair, blue eyes large and sparkling with some combination of hope and denial as he began, "So... You about ready for school?" Cue the award-winning smile.

Roxas stared at Sora in disbelief for a moment before responding in an are-you-really-that-stupid tone. "I'm sick."

His brother merely continued to smile, as if saying 'And your point is...?'

The blond resisted the urge to bang his head onto the table (he'd been doing that way too often lately; it couldn't be good for his IQ). "I think I should probably stay home." Cough. Snough. Sniff.

At these words, Sora's bright grin morphed into quivering lips, and Roxas, who had been expecting it, immediately focused his attention elsewhere, repressing a shudder – he knew all-too-well that Sora's kicked puppy expression would follow momentarily, and the teenager had, as of yet, never quite managed to say no to his twin when faced with _that_.

Making certain to keep his own sky-blue eyes from meeting Sora's, Roxas continued wearily. "Look, I don't want to get anyone sick and I'll be miserable all day and just make everyone else feel miserable, too."

Sora sighed whiningly, waiting for Roxas to look at him and succumb to the awesome power of his puppy dog stare. "But if you stay home from school then you won't go to the party tonight and I _promised_ Axel and Pence and Olette and everyone else that you'd be there! You can't make me break a _promise_!"

The sick teenager, gaze still averted, stood and began to make his slow, stumbling way to his bedroom, coughing every four or five words. "It's not like I can help it, Sora. And it's not that big of a deal, either. I'll just explain to Pence and Olette on Monday." _And the fact that Axel wants me to go gives me all the more reason not to_, the blond added silently.

"But Roxas!" Sora wailed, huge, shiny tears already forming in his eyes, before he was cut off by the muffled _thud-__click _of Roxas's bedroom door shutting and locking. He sighed heavily, tears disappearing as easily as they'd appeared, and the distressed teenager slumped down into his chair with a magnificent pout. His twin never did anything fun! It was so frustrating, how miserable Roxas was all the time, and the poor kid didn't even realize there was something seriously wrong with his life! (That being, of course, that he had no significant other to share it with… and he got sick too much.)

With another melodramatic sigh, Sora contemplated his options, making a quick list on a nearby (hopefully unused) kleenex.

_1) Leave Roxas at home alone, sick and miserable._

Well, that was hardly even an option at all. Granted, he'd get to see all his friends, not to mention Riku, and he'd get to hear Demyx's band, and he might even get to have sex before, during, and/or after the event, but the disadvantages far outweighed the perks. After all, without his help, Roxas was bound to continue down the path of teenage angst, misery, and naïvety right through to adulthood. And then – here Sora's eyes widened in horror – he could become one of those poor old ladies with a trillion cats! Or even worse, a suicide bomber, running into high schools across the country to seek revenge for his lonely, miserable youth!!

The brunet shuddered as he continued to contemplate the infinite possible outcomes, and decided option 1 was entirely out of the question, as he simply would not and could not be responsible for another nuclear war with France.

On to the second option:

_2) Stay at home with Roxas, missing school and the party._

This idea had some merit, he supposed, the least of which was no school for the day. It would certainly be noble of him, missing the party to save poor Roxas and, in effect, the world, from imminent destruction, and he would probably be hailed as an international hero! (Sora's eyes now shone brightly, enthralled with the idea.)

Of course, he thought with a mental sigh, that would put a serious damper on his night, and it _had_ been nearly five hours since he'd last had sex...

Deciding to keep that idea in the back of his mind, Sora moved on.

_3) Force Roxas to go to the party after school. _

Now _that_ was an idea. Via his amazing ninja skills, he would simply persuade (with force, if necessary) his twin to go see Demyx's band in spite of his "illness" (Sora had some doubts about the legitimacy of Roxas's so-called cold – after all, he hadn't looked _that_ sick). Of course, there was always the chance that his twin had actually been right, and that his presence would ruin everybody's fun – especially if the he really was sick, and his infection spread to all the guests...

No, that would never do.

With a fourth and final sigh, Sora settled on his likewise fourth and final option. It would keep Roxas's future life as angst-free as possible, while also allowing Sora the liberties of going to the party _and_ making sweet love to his boyfriend. His plan would have to be a secret, which would cost Sora all his hero points and possible future fame, but he would trust in the great science of karma and pray that his good deed would come back around to him – hopefully in the form of more Riku-time.

With this resolution set firmly in his mind, the brunet left the kitchen quickly to grab his books for school and set his plan in motion, leaving the kleenex lying forlornly on the ground, upset by his sudden exit, a hastily scribbled word visible amongst all the other, less-legible doodles:

_4) Axel._

_

* * *

  
_

Roughly eight hours later, said redhead, oblivious to the nefarious plans being plotted about and around him, was hatching some plans of his own – that is, if mentally calculating how much gas remained in his car and whether it could get him across town and back was considered planning.

(Of course, just having his own car back at his disclosure was a great relief; he had finally gotten Riku to agree to drive him out to Traverse Town the previous afternoon, so he could fetch his car from the auto shop it had been in since a week before he was "relocated". Due to the less than desirable circumstances, he had moved in such a hurry that he'd had neither time – nor method – to retrieve his precious baby from the shop.)

It was all Demyx's fault, really. The blond had called – barely five minutes after he had returned to Riku's house with his dear automobile, mind you – spouting this huge, "heartbreaking" sob story about how Larxene had quit the band (for probably the third or fourth time that week, based on what Axel had heard about the particularly sadistic girl) and how she was supposed to give him a ride and there was no one to play the keyboard and everyone was going to blame the poor, innocent musician if the band didn't show up, because Sora and Riku had gone to so much trouble blahblahblahblah.....

So, to appease (and silence) his friend, Axel had agreed to pick up Demyx, as well as Saїx, who didn't actually play in the band but called himself a member nonetheless, and drive them back to Riku's.

And thus we return to his original predicament – gas. Back in Traverse Town, he had held a steady job as a coffee connoisseur, which, on top of earnings from freelance photography, provided him with plenty of cash for just about whatever the hell he wanted. Of course, having only lived in Twilight Town for roughly three and a half days, Axel hadn't even had time for proper socializing, much less job searching, and, having already used his savings for school fees and the like, was currently running extremely short on funds.

A shout from the other room caught Axel's attention, and he finally left his spot in front of the mirror in the guest bathroom to investigate. It turned out to be Riku, standing in the center of his designer living room, holding the household telephone a good foot or so away from his ear and attempting to interrupt whomever was on the line. It didn't appear to be a very successful attempt, however, as said person continued to wail miserably.

"I don't know! He only lives here, and I hardly know him! Why are you calling me?!" Riku shouted into the receiver, much to Axel's puzzlement. Were they talking about him? _Well, duh, _the redhead mentally smacked himself in the forehead, _who else lives here that Riku hardly knows? _As he crept closer, the caller's response became clearer, and he held back the urge to groan in frustration.

It was Demyx, undoubtedly trying to get a hold of Axel, who had left his cell phone out in the car, turned off to conserve battery and avoid unwanted messages (really, he _had _only been living there for a couple days, and he already had an exponentially expanding fan club). Upon receiving the "This is Axel, leave a message (or not)" voicemail system, the overemotional blond had probably started freaking out and jumping to less-than-likely conclusions about Axel's fate.

"But he _lives_ with you! How could you not know where he is?! What if he's hurt, or lost, or DEAD?!? What kind of people are you, _killing your guests_?!?!" the blond on the other side of the phone line shrieked before bursting into heavy sobs, making it extremely difficult for Riku to respond with any lasting effect. Mercifully (for Riku, at least) the distressed teenager noticed Axel attempting to sneak back out of the room and, with a tumultuous cry of relief, he tossed the cordless device to his guest and fled to safety – aka, Sora.

Axel chuckled, catching the phone gracefully and shouting – quite as loud as his ex was wailing, or maybe a bit louder – Demyx's name repeatedly, along with random variants of several swear words, until the blond realized who he was sobbing/screaming at.

"Oh my god, AXEL!!!" The redhead was suddenly terribly thankful that they were at least fifteen miles apart, as a tackle-glomp would most definitely have accompanied that ear-shattering squeal of joy had he been within tackling range. (The last time he'd been subjected to such a typical Demyx demonstration of affection, he had emerged with numerous bruises and a black eye.)

Axel's response was quick, leaving Demyx no room to fit a word in. "Hey Dem. Sorry, my phone's out in the car. I was just about to leave. I'll be over in a few minutes, 'kay?" The redhead didn't wait for a response before jabbing the end button and looking around the room, noticing the silveret's absence and wondering where the hell he should put the phone.

Thankfully, Riku's mother chose that moment to enter the room, wearing a puzzled expression, before smiling lightly at Axel. "Oh, Axel, darling, you don't happen to know why Riku looks so distressed, do you?" At Axel's feigned confusion, the pale woman sighed. "He just ran right by me, not even stopping to say hello…" She trailed off before shrugging and smiling brightly at the (much) taller teenager. "Oh, well." Here she noticed the phone hanging loosely from Axel's hand and she nodded towards it curiously. "Did you need to make a call, dear?"

Axel smiled charmingly, holding out the telephone for her to take. "Nah, I'm done, I just wasn't sure where to put this thing."

Riku's mother accepted it with a light laugh, before turning to leave the room. Axel sighed, relieved to be out of the overly sweet woman's presence, and was about to collapse onto the exquisitely comfy couch sitting against one of the walls when the small woman abruptly reappeared in his line of vision, a bright smile on her face and what appeared to be a small plastic rectangle in her hand.

"Oh, Axel, I nearly forgot! Here," she held out the card, looking at the redhead expectantly, who took it cautiously, eyes widening when he realized it what it was. "Now, my husband will be putting fifty dollars on that card every Tuesday and Friday for your allowance, as we do with Riku, provided you help out a bit around the house every now and then." She either didn't notice or ignored Axel's incredulous expression, bright smile still in place as she turned to leave once more. "If you could take the trash out when you leave, dear, that would be simply grand."

Axel opened his mouth to protest before snapping it shut; who was he to question his hosts, after all? A wide grin took over his features as he made his way into the kitchen to complete his chore, wondering exactly how loaded Riku's folks were. Whistling happily, the redhead left the house, the bag of trash held as far away from him as possible, and deposited said bag into the trash can on the curb. With a sigh of accomplishment, he turned around, almost too caught up in the process of digging through his many pockets for his keys to notice the perky brunette perched neatly on the hood of his classic, cherry-red Corvette.

Almost.

"What are you doing?! Get off of my car!!" Axel demanded as he rushed over to check the car for any damage, the petite girl already standing a few feet away, wide-eyed with guilt. Unable to locate any smudges, scratches, or scrapes, the redhead turned around, fierce protectiveness burning in his green eyes. "Do you normally go around sitting on other people's _priceless, one of a kind _vehicles like it's some run of the mill Ford?! Don't you have any respect for the sacredness of practically antique cars?!" While the redhead ranted, he waved his arms around his head to accentuate either his anger or his insanity, continuing in spite of the poor girl's trembling lips or huge, watery eyes. It was, however, a bit more difficult to ignore it when she burst into full-fledged, body-shaking, nose-dripping sobs.

"I'm s-s-s-sorry!!!! I th-thought it was Riku's!!!" The brunette dragged out the teen's name into a horrendous screeching wail, and Axel's eyes went wide with panic, looking around frantically for any bystanders – of course, it was just his luck that a mother and her toddler were walking by the house at that very moment. The woman scowled at Axel, her look clearly stating that he ought to be ashamed of himself, before ushering the curious toddler across the street and away from the crazy man.

Axel approached the girl warily, reaching out to comfort her, saying hesitantly, "Oh, come on now… Don't… Don't cry like that… I didn't mean to yell…" Instead of the onslaught of tears slowing, it only increased, and the brunette threw herself at Axel, burying her face in his favorite leather jacket. The redhead looked down at her in alarm, completely unsure of what to do with the leech.

"Selphie, is that you?" Axel glanced up, relief clear in his eyes when he spotted Sora coming toward them, Riku only a few feet behind him. As soon as the pair was close enough, Axel detached the leaking girl and all but tossed her at Sora, who nearly fell at the unexpected weight.

Thankfully, Riku was there to steady them, and by the time all that had been sorted out and Sora turned to ask Axel what had happened, the tall teenager was already gone, along with his corvette. Brows furrowed, Sora placed a comforting arm around Selphie's shaking shoulders as he led her back towards his house, sharing a bewildered look with his lover.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, after Selphie had calmed down enough to regale a really-not-interested Riku with all of the most important gossip of the day, Sora carefully executed one of the secret-awesome-ninja-of-death moves his friend Yuffie had taught him (complete with theme music) to shuffle slyly away from the other two, expertly ignoring Selphie's confused, "Um, Sora?" and the silveret's exasperated eye-roll.

Once he arrived safely in his bedroom, the brunet hurriedly flipped open his cell phone and scanned his contacts for Axel (who was conveniently the first entry).

Sora grinned deviously and hit talk. "Hey, Axel, it's Sora!"

"I know, I have caller ID," the redhead replied, amused.

"Yeah, well, anyway," he cleared his throat, trying to sound more professional, "Word on the street is that you have a little bit of a thing for a certain someone whom I won't mention, for the safety of all involved parties."

A pause, then, "… Am I gonna get whacked or something for having this conversation?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. You were saying?"

Sora's brows furrowed in confusion for a moment, but he continued nonetheless. "Well, I might have some information for you that just might get you closer to you-know-who."

Axel couldn't help but nerd out for a second. "Oh, come on, Sora, fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Silence. Sora obviously didn't catch the allusion.

"Nevermind. Again. What information do you have about my dear Roxas?" he played along.

"Shhh!" Sora pulled the phone away from his ear and looked around the room wildly for a few seconds, ignoring Axel's confused "What the fuck?"

"I told you not to say his name!" the brunet finally felt safe enough to hiss, eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

"Jesus Christ… Alright, Sora. Can you get to the point of this, then? I've got stuff to do."

"Well," Sora began, breaking into a wide, devious smile. "I've got an idea…"


	6. Chapter V

_What? Is this a new chapter? Why, yes, it is. :D I know there's no excuse for waits like this, but trust me when I say that it was worth it, at least for me. I finally have a PLOT for this story. I can sit down and just write it, instead of dreading what might come out of my pen. I'm super excited about this story once more! I've already got most of the next chapter written, and the rest of the story in my head, so there shouldn't (I make no promises) be any more super long breaks. Okay? Okay. _

_Enjoy. _

* * *

"Sora!"

The brunet turned sharply at his name, cutting off what was a promising make out session much to Riku's dismay. Axel sauntered up to the pair, catching the attention of almost everyone at the party while the silveret huffed and crossed his arms, obviously annoyed with the redhead's sudden and uninvited appearance.

"Are you ready?" Axel had to yell to be heard over the song Demyx's band was warming up with. Riku continued to glare at him, prompting the redhead to smirk widely and wrap his arm around Sora's waist and pull him out of Riku's loose hold.

Sora grinned brightly, totally oblivious to the tension between the two other teens. "Oh, yeah! I almost forget." He turned to smile at Riku, who did not look pleased.

"You're leaving? With him?"

Sora rolled his eyes, "Yes, Riku. I already _told_ you, we've got ninja business to attend to."

Riku blinked.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll have him back by midnight," Axel promised sweetly before blowing a kiss at the huffy silveret and leading Sora away.

Sora glanced back for a moment to smile apologetically at his boyfriend before disappearing into the crowd, and Riku, grudgingly acknowledging that it might be a while before he saw his lover again, grabbed a drink.

* * *

Several miles away, Roxas sat not quite happily on his bed, wrapped in at least three different blankets and surrounded by a small but growing mound of Kleenexes. Sora had come in about an hour ago to say bye before he left for the party at Demyx's, suspiciously not attempting to convince Roxas to accompany him, but Roxas couldn't be bothered to care about his twin's abrupt change of mind; he was more concerned with his hot, if tasteless, bowl of soup and a marathon of Disney movies.

So at approximately six pm, when the doorbell rang the first time, Roxas, belting along with "I Just Can't Wait to be King," was entirely incapable of hearing anything except Simba and Nala.

When it rang a second time, Roxas heard it, but didn't care enough about what was most likely a religious fanatic or obnoxious door-to-door salesperson to even consider leaving his toasty cocoon of blankets.

The third time his visitor switched to knocking, and Roxas took a second to glare at his door, as if that would send the persistent caller away; surprisingly, the knocking stopped, so the blond happily returned to his movie.

Barely five minutes later, during a particularly emotional scene (Roxas definitely was _not _crying), the bushes outside his window began to rustle and whisper more deviously than bushes are wont to do. At first, Roxas didn't notice – but _not_ because he was crying; he was just that into the movie – but when the rosebush directly by his window suddenly yelped, he snapped out of his Disney-induced coma and turned to face the window with a puzzled and alarmed expression.

When he paused the movie, the whispering grew both more audible and more menacing.

"Shh! He's going to hear you!"

"Nuh-uh! I'm being a _ninja_ right now; I'm practically undetectable – Ow! What was that for?"

Roxas looked at the pile of pills on his bedside table and wondered what he had overdosed on to give him hallucinations like these, and slowly crept off the bed and over to the window, in order to hear better.

"Just proving that you're _not_ undetectable."

Roxas inched forward just a bit more and was puzzled to find his bedroom window open. He was even more puzzled when Axel fell halfway through said open window.

"Um… Hi, Roxie."

The blond stared at him for a moment, vaguely registering an evil cackle coming from beyond the bushes. "Axel?"

Grimacing, the redhead attempted to pull himself the rest of the way through the window with little success. "Rox, could you help me out?"

"I don't think it's healthy to interact with hallucinations," Roxas deadpanned, gaze focused on the strip of pale skin visible from where Axel's shirt had been pulled up in his struggle with the window.

Axel stopped his squirming to look up at Roxas incredulously. "Hallucination?"

Finally tearing his eyes away from the older teen's stomach, Roxas locked eyes with Axel. "What?"

"You called me a hallucination."

"Oh, yeah. I think I overdosed on whatever medicine Sora gave me. I'm sure you'll go away soon." And he sat down heavily on his bed, still watching Axel.

Realizing that he was probably going to be stuck in this window until he convinced the sick teenager that he was not a figment of his imagination, Axel decided to play along for a bit. "And your mind conjured up me, falling through your window?"

"Well, yeah," Roxas replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe.

Axel waited for him to elaborate, and Roxas did.

"I mean, you were in my dream last night, too…" His cheeks adopted a pink tint as he looked away almost shyly.

Completely floored by an unconfrontational Roxas, the redhead could only reply, "I thought you hated me."

Roxas mumbled something that sounded like "me too" before he settled back into his bed and grabbed the remote to un-pause his movie.

"You're just going to leave me like this?"

The blond looked at him, puzzled. "Well, you're not real, so I don't see how it matters where you are. And your leg's just caught on a thorn; you could probably get out if you pulled a bit harder."

Sure enough, when Axel contorted enough to see his leg, he easily disengaged it from the rose bush and tumbled the rest of the way through the window.

"See?" Axel could hear the blond's smirk in his reply, and hurriedly pulled himself upright, annoyed that his entrance had been so much less than impressive and sexy – and that Roxas didn't think he was real.

The blond did restart his movie, but turned down the volume, in case his hallucination felt like talking.

After a moment, Axel gingerly sat down on the bed next to him, prepared to be shoved off or verbally abused, but Roxas didn't seem to mind; in fact, he even scooted over to give the redhead more room beside him. Beaming at this victory, Axel scooted a little closer to Roxas, and still receiving no response, snaked an arm around the blond's waist. The blond sat tensely in his loose embrace for a moment before relaxing and resting his head against Axel's bicep with a contented little sigh.

Axel let a few minutes pass like this, astonished – but thrilled – at his success, and reveled in the feeling of having the blond in his arms – er, arm – but eventually he decided that he might as well take advantage of the situation to the fullest, and reached over with his other arm to gently nudge Roxas's chin up, so that they were looking at each other. Fittingly, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" played in the background as Axel leaned forward, hoping to make his intentions clear enough that the blond would have plenty of time to refuse, but Roxas's only response was for his eyes to flick downward on to Axel's lips, and he resisted the urge to smirk as he leaned even closer, feeling the blond's breath against his skin, hesitating just a moment before moving in to set his lips softly against Roxas's…

"AAAAH-CHOOOOOO."

The pair flew apart, Axel wiping at his face with a thoroughly disgruntled expression, and Roxas staring at him with wide eyes.

* * *

It had been over half an hour since Sora left, and Riku was more than a little buzzed, as he downed another glass of … whatever he was drinking, and stood once again to look for his boyfriend, figuring he'd have more luck this time than he'd had three minutes ago. The band was taking a break, so he made his way over to Demyx.

"Hey Riku!" The bubbly blond grinned at him, obviously still high on the thrill of performing.

"Hey. Good job up there," he gestured toward the stage, and Demyx smiled even more widely, obviously about to launch into how awesome the show was going and how he couldn't wait for them to start back up, but Riku quickly cut him off. "Have you seen Sora?"

Demyx stopped bouncing in excitement and cocked his head, curious. "No, not since we started playing, but I haven't really been looking for him. Did you lose him or something?" He poked his tongue between his lips childishly, which Riku ignored.

"No, he left with Axel a while ago." The teenager glanced distractedly around the room and took another draw from his cup.

Eyes wide, Demyx shook his head. "No way! Sora's totally not his type, and Axel would never do something like that! Sora's practically married to you!"

"Not like that, idiot," Riku snapped, futilely trying to block out the mental images Demyx's comment had produced, "Sora just needed Axel to go keep Roxas company so he wouldn't feel guilty leaving his brother sick at home while he was here." It had taken Riku ten minutes after Sora left to come to this conclusion, as he honestly hadn't been listening when his boyfriend had explained it to him.

"Oh," Demyx nodded sagely, "That makes a lot more sense." A high heel suddenly collided with the back of Demyx's head and he twisted around, more shocked than hurt. "What the hell, Larxene?"

"We're about to start, shithead," Larxene replied evenly, and sure enough, everyone except Demyx was already onstage and set. Shouting apologies to Riku and the band, Demyx hopped on stage and grabbed the mic, now apologizing to the crowd.

"Isn't that your precious wifey over there?"

Riku glanced at Larxene, who was putting her shoe back on, and she nodded toward the stairs. Sure enough, the familiar shape of Sora's spiky hair stood out in the dim lighting. He turned to say thanks to Larxene, but she was already back on stage, counting off another song.

Shrugging off an uneasy feeling at Larxene's abnormally helpful behavior, Riku took a few steps in Sora's direction. "Sora!" He called to his lover, but the music was too loud, so he pushed past people until he reached the brunet. "Hey, baby," he murmured into Sora's ear as he wrapped his arms around him from behind. Sora turned around in his embrace with a smile and leaned up to kiss him, which Riku responded to happily, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.

A few moments later Sora pulled away, and Riku raised an eyebrow questioningly. The brunet opened his mouth to say something, but instead shot a frustrated look at the band and leaned up once more, but this time to murmur huskily in his ear. "Upstairs?"

Riku grinned widely, and Sora grabbed his wrist and led him up the stairs and into what looked like a guest bedroom in the moment before the light was flicked off. Riku suddenly had an armful of more-than-willing Sora, and he caught his lips in another heated kiss as the brunet pushed them backward and on to the bed.

* * *

Sora, breathing heavily, clutched a stitch in his side as he finally reached Demyx's house; surely a one, two tops, mile walk – all downhill, too – shouldn't leave him this winded, and he decided that he needed more exercise than he was currently getting, which mostly consisted of steamy bouts of love-making with Riku.

Thoughts of his boyfriend made Sora smile, and he bounced into the party, eager to find the silveret. The plan had worked brilliantly, despite Axel's insistence that they should just use Sora's keys to get into the house. The redhead was obviously unlearned in the art of ninja, so Sora forgave him for making such an amateur move, and in the end they'd both gotten what they wanted, and Axel was presumably corrupting his dear little brother at this very moment.

Demyx's band was still playing, their current song less their usual pop-punk style and more metal-influenced, which was probably Larxene's influence. Sora wasn't impressed with the result. Wincing at the harsh music and anxious to locate Riku, Sora latched onto the arm of a passerby, who luckily turned out to be Hayner and not some crazy psycho serial killer.

"Hey, Sora! Where's Roxas?" Hayner leaned close to Sora so he wouldn't have to yell too loudly to be heard, and Sora inferred from the blond's own winces that he felt just about as charitable toward this genre as Sora himself.

Making a face, he replied, "He couldn't make it! Caught the flu or something, but he told me to tell you sorry, and he'll see you at school!" Of course, Roxas had made only a vague reference about the party when he'd left, and had definitely not expressed sorrow at missing it, or anticipation of seeing his friend (Sora was pretty sure they were still on shaky grounds), but just a little white lie couldn't possibly hurt anybody.

Hayner grinned, obviously accepting Sora's word as fact and pleased by Roxas's apparent change of heart, and started to turn away, but Sora grabbed his elbow, suddenly remembering why he'd stopped Hayner in the first place.

"You don't know where Riku is, do you?" he asked, a hopeful expression on his face.

Hayner stared at him for a moment, brows furrow in confusion, before he finally replied, hesitantly. "Well, yeah, he's upstairs, but weren't you just–"

Sora took off, ignoring Hayner's last few words and sudden expression of concern, and jumped the stairs two at a time to reach his boyfriend, ready to be congratulated for the successful implementation of his plan. The first few rooms he checked were devoid of Riku, and he excitedly opened the last door, not recognizing the noises coming from the other side for what they were.

"Hey Riku, what're you doing up here?" He furrowed his noise, and the room was suddenly silent except for him speaking. "And why's it so dark–" He finally flipped on the light and froze. What he was seeing was impossible. He knew that couldn't truly be _his_ soul mate, _his_ Riku, naked and intertwined with some stranger – but Sora knew that body better than he knew his own.

"Oh, um…" Sora stuttered, blindly fumbling for the light switch, mind blank and movements automatic, "Sorry to interrupt – I'll just–" and he finally flipped the light off and backed out of the room, closing the door carefully behind him.

* * *

Pausing as he packed away his share of the band's equipment, Demyx grinned at yet another rabid fan, this time a guy who yelled "Sweet show, dude," as he walked out. And the fan was right: the practice had gone better than anyone could have anticipated, and the whole band felt confident about totally rocking their gig the next night. The party had gone equally well, if the debris of snack food and slowly-fading odor of alcohol was any indication, Demyx noted as he surveyed the living room with a critical eye, glad that he could put off most of the heavy-duty cleaning until the morning. Performances always wiped him out.

"Whoa!" Demyx yelled as someone plowed into him from behind, and he turned around with a smile that quickly faded at the sight of Sora, who sported a curiously and extremely un-Sora-like blank expression. "Whoa," he said again, less annoyed and more concerned, "What's up, little dude?" He held the brunet in place for a moment, but Sora wasn't fazed, his eyes gazing unfocused over his shoulder.

"Can I borrow your car, Demyx?" the small teen asked, still not looking Demyx in the eye. "I'll have Axel drive it back, I promise, just… Please."

Demyx, struck by Sora's strange behavior but realizing that this was no time to be asking questions of his little friend, fished the keys out of the pocket of his skinny jeans and wordlessly passed them to Sora, who grabbed them and, without so much as a thank you, darted in front of a large group of people and out the front door.

Demyx waited only a moment before turning to find the brunet's boyfriend, hoping for an explanation, and sure enough, Riku stumbled down the stairs, trying and failing to button his jeans as he went, an expression of complete devastation on his face.

"Sora!" Riku called, and Demyx instinctively rushed forward to catch him before he reached the front door, his mind screaming that something was definitely not right.

"Hey, man, what's up?"

Riku pushed past him impatiently and shoved some leaving partiers out of his way just in time for Demyx to catch a glimpse of his own car speeding away over the silveret's shoulder, and he hoped Roxas could get something out of the brunet when he got home.

A choked sound caught his attention, and he re-focused on Riku, alarmed. "Hey," he put a steadying hand on the teen's shoulder, and was relieved when he wasn't immediately shoved off. "Riku, dude…"

The silveret turned mechanically at his name, and Demyx was shocked to see tears gathering in the creases of his bright aqua eyes.

"Alright," the musician, adopting a firmer tone and more serious expression than many of his friends would have believed him capable of, used his hand on Riku's shoulder to guide the teenager to the couch, which cleared at a look; since the show had ended, the house was nearly emptied of partiers now, anyway. Riku sat automatically, and Demyx brushed some Cheetos off of the remaining cushion before settling down beside him. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

* * *

It took Roxas a while to come to terms with the fact that Axel was _not_ a hallucination. It took him a while longer to accept that the redhead was, in fact, in his room, and it would take a few days longer to even confront the fact that they had kissed, no matter how briefly.

It only took Axel a few moments to get over being sneezed on, and a few minutes after that he was leading a still slightly befuddled Roxas into a bright and cheery diner.

"What are we doing here?" Roxas asked, all-too-aware that he had sneezed all over the redhead and absently wondering if Axel was about to go Sweeney Todd on him as punishment.

Axel laughed, as if he knew what Roxas was thinking, and led the way up to the counter. "Getting something to eat, of course."

Still a little unsure, Roxas followed him, but brightened when he saw that they offered sea-salt ice cream. Already imagining how delicious his first bite of the frozen treat would be, he almost missed who was standing behind the counter, impatiently popping her bubblegum as she waited for them to order.

"Kairi?" the blond asked incredulously, before recalling Sora mentioning something the other day about them moving back to Twilight.

"Roxas," the teen acknowledged with an unpleasant expression. "What a lovely surprise." Her tone made it clear that, although a surprise, it was anything but lovely.

"Likewise," Roxas ground out, and Axel cut in before harsher words could be thrown.

"How nice! Well, I think we're ready to order!" Axel cheerfully announced, and Kairi turned to him with a raised eyebrow and another pop of her bubblegum. We'll need a double-fudge-marshmallow shake, a sea-salt ice cream, and two double cheeseburgers with chili-cheese fries. Extra large."

Roxas gaped while Kairi put the order in and told them it would be "ready in a few ticks" in a tone as sweet as sugar-coated cyanide.

Axel sauntered over to a booth and collapsed into it, with Roxas trailing behind.

"Are you really that hungry?" The blond asked as he settled into his seat.

"Nah, half of it is yours." Before he had a chance to argue, Axel continued. "So what's up with you and Red?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in Kairi's general direction, and the girl glared at Roxas in response.

"She's a bitch," Roxas replied shortly, and then expounded at Axel's less-than-impressed look. "She used to live here and was totally obsessed with Sora; she was constantly at our house, waiting on the porch for Sora to come home if he was gone, and fawning over him if he was there, even though he made it clear – politely, of course, you know Sora – that he wasn't interested. My mom seriously thought about getting a restraining order."

Axel blanched and looked back at the redhead in disbelief. "No way. I mean, she obviously hates you, but she doesn't seem that crazy."

Roxas laughed humorlessly. "Oh, she is. Trust me."

They sat for a moment in silence.

"So Sora and Riku haven't actually been together for a million years?" Axel broke the silence.

Roxas blinked. "What do you mean?"

The redhead grinned indulgently. "Everyone acts like they've been dating since they were in diapers or something. I've never heard of a pre-RiSo period."

Roxas snorted at the meshing of the two names, but nodded, understanding. "They weren't always dating, per se, but it's always been clear that they were closer than just best friends, even before either realized he had feelings for the other. But no, they didn't officially start dating until homecoming last year."

"Really? That's so much more recent than I expected. They just seem so… close." The redhead grimaced at his inability to express what he was trying to say.

"They are," Roxas insisted. "Ever since Riku moved in, they've been inseparable. We all knew it would happen sooner or later. They were meant to be." He trailed off, looking down in hopes that Axel wouldn't see his cheeks reddening.

Luckily, Kairi appeared beside the table at that moment, quite impressively carrying the tray holding their order single-handedly, the other hand resting against her hip.

"So," she began, obviously intending to hold their food hostage until she got information, "How's Sora doing?"

"Just dandy," Roxas muttered, hoping she would leave, but her glossy pout showed otherwise, so Axel gave it a shot.

"Oh, you know Sora. As long as he's got Riku around, how could he be anything but happy?" The redhead concluded with a charming smile and wink combo.

Kairi sneered at him, and turned her attention back to Roxas, with what he thought must be an attempt at a smile, but in reality looked more like a grimace. "Can you tell Sora I said hi? And that I'll be waiting to hear from him, of course."

Roxas raised an eyebrow, wondering how she could still possibly think she had a chance with Sora, but nodded nonetheless, and Kairi finally set their food on the table, Axel's with a bit more force than entirely necessary, and clicked away in her ridiculous hot pink pumps.

"What a sweetheart," Axel commented before taking a long draw from his shake. Roxas watched until the redhead raised an eyebrow, and then he looked hastily down at his own meal.

"Eat up, Roxie!"

Roxas looked up at Axel disbelievingly. "You can't expect me to eat this junk. I'm sick." And he sniffed hard, as if to prove the point, although he was already beginning to feel a little better than he had earlier. From the laugh Axel let out, Roxas guessed the older teen must know this.

"Trust me, kid. Think of it as my personal recommended treatment for all illnesses, real and imagined." He winked again, though Roxas believed it was much friendlier – sexier, his mind amended, despite Roxas's denial – than the wink he'd bestowed Kairi with moments ago. He smiled instinctively in response.

Axel grabbed his own cheeseburger, using both hands to hold the monstrosity together as grease dripped off his fingers, and held it to his mouth, waiting for Roxas to follow suit. The teen made a face as he gingerly picked up his own burger, and his stomach, sensing the oncoming nourishment, growled loudly, and Roxas winced, ignoring Axel's delighted laugh, and finally took a bite. Eyes closing in pleasure at the pure salty, greasy, cheesy mouthful of heart attack, Roxas fought the ridiculous urge to moan at how delicious the cheeseburger was after two days with nothing but a few bowls of bland chicken noodle soup. He swallowed the bite and opened his eyes to find Axel staring at him, hamburger dangling precariously from limp fingers and jaw dropped. Immediately Roxas blushed a bright red.

"What?" He asked defensively, setting the burger down and reaching for a fry.

"I have never met anyone that could make eating a cheeseburger so – " he leaned forward, setting his own burger down and looking Roxas dead in the eyes, " – erotic."

Although his immediate reaction to this ridiculous observation was to chuck his handful of chili-cheese-coated fries straight into the older teen's serious face, Roxas couldn't help but laugh in delight as Axel good-naturedly wiped his face off. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun.


	7. Chapter VI

_First off, I'm sorry about the wait on this; I've had it written for at least a month, but I didn't like where it was ending. But now it's fixed! Anyway. I recently acquired a job (YAY!), so my time has become more precious, and with finals coming up, I'm having to spend a lot of it on school. BUT! I will be done with classes after the first week of May, and then I can devote some real time to this fic. :D_

_Anyway. Here's chapter six - I really never thought I would make it this far - and it's actually my longest chapter ever, by two whole pages on word. Rejoice! _

_EDITED: 1/17/2013_

* * *

Roxas was still grinning when Axel dropped him off and walked him to his door, despite the fact that Axel was only going to the house next door and Roxas had mentioned, more than once, that it really, seriously wasn't necessary. As soon as he entered the house he rushed to the window to watch the redhead drive twenty feet to Riku's house, but ducked out of view before Axel could catch him spying.

A moment passed as Roxas stood by the window, heart pounding, before his brain caught up with him. What the hell was that about? His mind raced over the last few hours and immediately Roxas's wide grin returned. Yeah, it was weird how much he suddenly enjoyed spending time with Axel (though he'd never tell him that), but it wasn't a crime to have fun, and it certainly wasn't a crime to make a new friend… Okay, maybe that was pushing things a little bit. He hadn't known this guy a week yet. But acquaintances sounded good.

Solving this mental dilemma, Roxas turned to head to his room, and suddenly noticed the blaring music pounding through his twin's door.

"What on earth," he muttered to himself, following the noise. Sora didn't listen to music that loud, and especially not the emo rock currently playing; he was more a poppy kind of person.

"Sora!" Roxas yelled over the noise as he pounded on his twin's door, causing one of the many pictures of Sora and Riku to slip to the floor. "Turn it down!"

Roxas waited for a response, but received none, except for the music becoming even louder. He growled, not amused. "Jesus, Sora, this isn't funny! Find some headphones!" He wasn't even sure if Sora could hear him, and after a few more angry slams on the door, he gave up and went to his own room, still littered with tissues.

Roxas realized with a jolt that he felt better than he had all day, and made a face at the thought of Axel's "personal recommended treatment for all illnesses, real and imagined" (and his face became even more convoluted when he found that he could remember what Axel had said, word for word) had proven more effective than all the medicine he'd been dosed up on. As he bent over to collect all the tissues, something fell out of his pocket, which at first glance looked like another Kleenex, but a bit of writing peeked out from the folds. Roxas picked it up, curious, and unfolded it to reveal a phone number accompanied by a rough stick figure drawing of two people, one with longer spiky hair than the other and sporting two miniscule dots under his eyes. They were holding hands and smiling widely.

It didn't take long for Roxas to deduce who had left the message, and he glanced at his cell phone, contemplating whether a snarky text on the redhead's artistic ability was called for, but his headache was returning with a vengeance, and all he really wanted to do was sleep for a while. Getting to sleep, however, was difficult with the heavy bass line of Sora's music pounding through the wall that they shared, but with the help of some NyQuil, Roxas managed to slip into a deep sleep.

* * *

Saturday passed uneventfully for Roxas. Although he had felt better the previous night, he felt worse than ever when he woke up, and his only comfort was knowing that he could gleefully prove that Axel's "cure" was indeed the load of bullshit he had originally called it. Stumbling across the hall to get a glass of water from the bathroom was the limit of his strength, and he passed the hours drifting from one NyQuil-induced dream to another, occasionally waking long enough to bang feebly on the wall and hoarsely croak a demand for the music to please be turned down so he could rest.

Around eight that night Roxas decided that he had to eat something, so he slowly made his way to the kitchen, where he ate lukewarm spaghetti-o's from the can. This pathetic fifteen minute excursion out of his room left Roxas so drained that the next time he woke up was around six Sunday morning, just as the sun began to peek through the gap in his curtains.

Roxas groaned and rolled back over, burying his head under a pillow in hopes of drowning out the music that was inexplicably still pulsing through the house. The lit up screen of his cell phone informed him of the time, and he scowled; their mom would've gotten home about two hours ago and would have to leave again by nine. What was Sora thinking?

The blond rolled out of bed still scowling, only vaguely registering that he felt considerably more like an actual human today. Slamming his door open, he stalked over to his brother's room and began pounding on the door, determined not to stop until his twin acknowledged his presence. His hand was beginning to tingle and turn numb by the time Sora opened the door, and he managed to stop the motion of his arm before he slugged Sora in the face, although that idea wasn't totally without merit. But then he actually looked at Sora, and all his intentions and anger were swept out of his mind.

Sora looked like hell. His typically well-cared-for clothes were wrinkled and his face was abnormally pale, except for where dark smudges rested under his puffy eyes, making it clear that he'd not slept at all last night. The sight made Roxas's skin inexplicably crawl.

When Sora spoke, his voice was dull and emotionless. "Go away, Rox." He made to close the door, but Roxas caught it with his foot before he could.

The attempted dismissal made Roxas remember why he'd come, and he snapped, "You're being a dick. Turn the music down. Mom's trying to sleep."

Sora closed his eyes for a moment in response, pressing his hand to his forehead, and Roxas thought that maybe Sora needed the sleep even more than their mother.

"Is that all?" The brunet opened his eyes as he finished speaking, his voice still frustratingly toneless.

Roxas stared at him for a moment, finally getting the sense that something beyond sleep deprivation was wrong with his twin, but not knowing how to address it. "What's your problem?" he asked, mostly unaccusingly, but Sora's eyes flashed in annoyance.

"Right now, you are. Seriously, leave me alone." He tried to close the door again, and again Roxas blocked it.

"Why?"

"I don't want to talk to anyone right now, Roxas, not you, not mom, not–" He blanched and tried to turn away to cover it up, but Roxas saw.

"Not who? Ri–"

"Don't say his name!" Sora cried suddenly, desperately, and Roxas was entirely speechless at this unexpected outburst.

Breathing heavily, Sora tried again. "Just leave me alone, Roxas. Please."

This time Roxas allowed the door to be shut quietly but firmly in his face. 'What the hell was that about?' Roxas could hardly believe Sora's abrupt personality change, and could not even begin to fathom what had caused it, but he did know someone who would.

* * *

"Damn it!" Roxas swore as Riku's phone went to voicemail again. He snapped his own phone shut, cutting off the cheery "Leave me a message!" that Sora had recorded to replace the standard voicemail greeting, since Riku didn't care enough to bother, and sat thinking for a moment. The situation was truly bizarre. It had been so long since Roxas had had to deal with a distressed Sora; Riku had always kept the brunet happy. What on earth could have happened between them?

A napkin sticking out from underneath his pillow caught Roxas's eyes, and when he pulled it out he recognized it as the napkin Axel had written his number on Friday night. He debated for a moment; talking to Axel was sometimes fun, but more often exhausting, and he wasn't in the mood to deal with Axel's unwelcome advances. But his concern for his brother won out over his trepidation, and Roxas punched the number into his cell, trying to ignore the sudden fluttering in his stomach. The phone barely had time to ring before it was answered.

"Roxie, sweetheart. I was wondering when I'd hear from you." Axel answered the phone, and although his words were teasing, his tone was serious, and Roxas had a feeling Axel knew something about what was up with Sora.

"Hey, Axel. I'm actually trying to get a hold of Riku."

"Wow, you really know how to flatter a guy." Again, although he knew he was being teased, Axel's tone was too sober. "I doubt he wants to talk to you. I've hardly gotten a word out of him. Had to track down Demyx to figure out what happened."

Roxas's stomach plummeted at that statement, knowing he was right in guessing that something horrible had occurred between Riku and Sora.

"What do you mean? What happened?"

There was a pregnant pause.

"Sora hasn't, um, told you yet?" Axel's voice was uncertain and a little fearful, and Roxas's eyes narrowed.

"He's not exactly in a talkative mood right now, and apparently you know why." The unspoken demand rang loud and clear in his voice.

"Well… I mean, I've only heard it from Dem, so I probably don't know the whole story, and I'm sure there's a completely valid explanation, and you should really be asking Sora about this; it's not my busi-"

"Axel," Roxas growled in his most intimidating manner, "What the _fuck_ happened?"

Another moment of silence, this time lasting so long that Roxas was about to check if the call had been disconnected, but finally Axel answered, as seriously as Roxas had ever heard him speak.

"At Demyx's part, on Friday, after Sora left me at your house, he walked in on Riku and another guy."

Roxas's blood ran cold. "What?" he all-but whispered.

"They were, well… you know… and Sora left. That's all I know."

A moment passed as Roxas's mind struggled with what Axel had said. The redhead started to speak again, more frantically, but Roxas snapped the phone shut, unwilling to listen, his mind whirling at the unthinkable explanation. But it was an explanation, and now that he'd heard it, Roxas could imagine nothing else that would explain Sora's strange behavior.

He felt like an idiot – a horrible brother – for not figuring this out sooner, and he approached Sora's door yet again.

"Sora," Roxas called a single time, resting his forehead against the wooden door. Barely a moment passed before the music was abruptly muted and the door swung open.

Sora's expression was annoyed at another interruption, but this time Roxas zeroed in on what he had not paid attention to previously: Sora's red, swollen eyes; the way his hair lay flat and dull against his head; his hunched, defeated posture; and, he realized after a moment, his outfit, the same that he had worn for the party Friday night.

A tense moment passed as Roxas struggled for words to confront him and comfort him, while Sora waited impatiently, his gaze growing more irritated. But Roxas's mind was silent for once, and instead of awkwardly standing in his twin's doorway, the blond let his fraternal instincts take over and he yanked his brother forward and into a rough hug, holding all the more tightly as Sora struggled against him, hoarse voice demanding release.

"It's okay," Roxas soothed, knowing it was anything but, and Sora stilled for a moment, perhaps hearing in his voice that Roxas _knew, _and he finally collapsed against his shoulder, his harsh, silent sobs moving them both.

They stood in the hallway for immeasurable time, Roxas's heart aching at its twin's anguish. He murmured more empty comforts, as much for his own benefit as for Sora's, and when the brunet's tears subsided into hiccups, Roxas led his twin back to his bed, which Sora immediately crawled into, pulling his twin along with him. Everything about Sora reeked of exhaustion. The twins curled around each other as they hadn't for years, not since their father had left, when Sora would wander into Roxas's room each night to crawl in bed with him, and occasionally when they'd both move to their mother's bed, unable to bear hearing her cry alone.

Now, however, Roxas felt a fierce ire toward his mother: they had done their best to be there for her, and as far as he could tell she hadn't even inquired about Sora, despite the obvious evidence that something was wrong. Above all, though, he was annoyed with himself; their mother, while she was _supposed_ to have a sixth sense about these things, was not around often. _He_ was, so he should have been the _first_ to notice this.

Hardly five minutes passed before Sora was snoring gently against Roxas's bicep, but the blond, who'd done nothing but sleep all weekend, lay awake, thinking about Riku. How could he have done that? Anger at the silveret quickly built up. Sora had trusted him so entirely, loved him so devotedly; Roxas had never so much as seen the couple fight before, and for Riku to so drastically jump from adoring boyfriend to adulterous bastard made Roxas feel sick to his stomach with rage. Something had to be done – Riku deserved to suffer for this, Roxas thought, seething, as Sora murmured and shifted without waking up.

Roxas resolved to confer with Axel about the possibilities tomorrow; the blond wasn't creative enough to think of anything other than punching the bastard in his pathetic face until he hurt as much as Sora did, and although that would be satisfying, Roxas felt that Riku deserved much worse.

Some time passed, Roxas plotting all the while. Eventually he heard the door slam, but was unsure if it was his mother coming or going. Either way, he thought bitterly, gritting his teeth, she wasn't showing any concern for either of her sons, and with these angry thoughts still filling his head, he fell asleep.

* * *

The twins woke up at the same time, each with the other's feet in his face. Sora had somehow turned himself around, so that his head rested at the foot of the bed, while Roxas had remained in the same spot he'd fallen asleep in. Both feeling better than they had yesterday – it was Monday, though barely, the alarm clock declared – they giggled childishly for a few moments before Sora's memory seemed to rush back to him and his chuckle died out.

Desperate to keep Sora from sinking into depression, Roxas pulled his twin out of bed and into the kitchen.

"What are we doing?" Sora whined half-heartedly. "It's too early."

The window above the sink showed a still dark sky, so Roxas guessed it probably was too early, but already Sora was looking around, curious and interested, so the blond stuck with his plan.

"We," he began, his head vanishing into the pantry, "are going to have pancakes." Roxas punctuated the statement by successfully pulling out a half-squashed box of Bisquik with a grand flourish. Sora's face lit up, and it was almost like normal.

"Really?" the brunet asked, excited, as he clambered up onto the counter and sat there, legs dangling.

"Really." Roxas squinted at the directions, hoping he could actually do this. "Pass me the pan from that cabinet," Roxas ordered, gesturing vaguely to Sora's left, and the brunet complied happily.

Before long Roxas had the instant mix ready to go on to the hot skillet, and Sora appropriately ooh-ed and ahh-ed as he demonstrated his limited cooking prowess. They both watched as the pile of lumpy batter spread into a likewise-lumpy circle and slow bubbles began to appear. After what Roxas hoped was an appropriate time he "flipped" the pancake – the act was so much harder in practice than in theory – and finally they had a large, very brown, pancake-ish object lying on a plate.

"That's the ugliest pancake I've ever seen," Sora commented, a little awed.

Roxas agreed, but returned to the skillet anyway, hoping practice would make, if not perfect, at least edible.

Half an hour later each of their plates sported a respectable stack of not-quite circular, just off golden brown, mostly lump-free, but overall acceptable pancakes. The garbage can held its own respectable stack of the not-so acceptable ones.

"Well," Roxas remarked, eyeing their meal dubiously.

"Yeah," Sora replied, poking one of them.

Roxas went to grab some maple syrup, but seeing none, instead grabbed the chocolate syrup, peanut butter, and marshmallows. After piling these three ingredients into a small volcano (complete with chocolate lava) on top of their pancakes, they finally sat down to eat in the light of the newly-risen sun.

* * *

"Seriously! Those were the most amazing pancakes I have ever tasted!" Sora called after Roxas as he went to get ready for school.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, Sora. Just clean something up, will you?" the blond yelled back. His cell phone flashing from his pillow caught his attention and he checked it to find a text from Axel.

"_Need a ride? ;D_"

Roxas grinned; he'd been about to text the redhead himself to ask for that very service. Sending back a grateful affirmative ("_yeah thx_"), Roxas shrugged his shirt off and grabbed one from the clean pile. Riding with Riku was definitely not an option, and Roxas wanted the chance to talk to Axel again – for entirely devious, revenge-seeking purposes, of course, and not because he actually _wanted_ to, his mind reassured him, as butterflies cavorted merrily in his stomach.

Fully dressed and ready to go, Roxas returned to the kitchen to find Sora hunched over the table, sniffling into his arms. Roxas closed his eyes for a moment, resisting the urge to go find that cheating bastard and kill him right that second. Roxas sat next to his twin, rubbing his arm as he waited for the moment to pass. Sora stood suddenly with a watery smile and went to get ready, leaving Roxas to clean the kitchen, which he did without so much as a twinge of annoyance.

Just as Sora reentered the room, dry-faced, a honk sounded from outside. The brunet froze, eyes wide with panic.

"It's just Axel," Roxas assured him as he tossed their sticky plates into the sink, and Sora tried to force himself to relax. As they left the house, Roxas locking the door behind them, he wondered if Sora was really in a state to be going to school. Thankfully he – Sora, that is – had no classes with that bastard this year, but surely Riku would come up in conversations throughout the day, or worse, try to talk to Sora firsthand. Roxas nearly snarled at the idea; Sora did not need to be having that conversation any time soon, or ever, if Roxas could help it.

These worries still plagued him as Axel drove them to school. At first, the ride was almost painfully awkward. Roxas wanted to rant about The Bastard, as he'd re-dubbed him in his mind, but knew it would upset Sora, who sat silently in the backseat. Axel just looked as if he had no idea what to say in the situation.

"So, how was your weekend?" the redhead asked awkwardly, proving that he did indeed have no idea what to say.

Roxas looked at him incredulously. Through the rearview mirror he could see that Sora hadn't heard the completely tactless question, which was all that kept him from reaching out and smacking the older teen. Axel winced, apparently realizing his mistake.

"I mean… Wow, the weather's awfully nice today!" He announced too cheerfully. "All sunny and… and… spring-y…"

"It is spring," Roxas pointed out dryly, and Axel chuckled, taking one hand off the steering wheel to rub at his neck. The blond watched the road fearfully until he replaced his hand, although Axel was a much better driver than The Bastard.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

Awkward silence reigned once more.

"I like your car," Sora suddenly stated from the backseat, catching Axel's gaze in the rearview mirror with a small smile.

Immediately Axel's eyes lit up, and Roxas, who'd been watching him, felt his mouth go dry. "I've been working on her since before I could drive," Axel gushed, and he continued singing praises of the cherry red corvette, and Roxas listened politely. Although it was obvious to anyone that the car was rather nice looking, Roxas had never felt anything but passing appreciation for cars, mostly because they, y'know, took him places. He had never understood those people who would waste thousands of dollars restoring some pile of rusted metal to its former "glory" when they could just go buy a brand new one for half the cost. But now that Axel was talking about the car so adoringly, he found himself becoming more interested and impressed, and even asked a few questions about some of the mechanics (mostly things like: "It's got a motor, too, right?" and "What about… the tires?" in an uncertain tone) just to keep Axel smiling. Oh, and the lack of awkward silence was nice, too.

Before long the trio arrived at school, Axel still grinning and rambling on about his baby, unmindful of Roxas's serious car knowledge deficit. Roxas tuned the redhead out, however, when he emerged from the car and came face-to-face with another, less-welcome redhead, flanked by what could only have been her sister, sporting the same small nose and wide, blue eyes and peering at him from behind a curtain of blond hair.

"Kairi," Roxas said, surprised by her sudden appearance.

"Hi, Roxas," she replied, her tone infinitely less acidic than it had been at their last meeting. "I don't think you've met my sister, Naminé?" She placed a hand on the blonde's arm and guided her forward, to stand between her and Roxas.

"Hello, Roxas," Naminé smiled prettily, while Kairi abandoned the pair to greet Sora gently. Roxas guessed she must have heard about what happened.

"Hey," Roxas replied unenthusiastically, craning his head over his shoulder in hopes of seeing or hearing some of Sora's conversation with Kairi.

"She won't hurt him, I don't think."

Roxas turned to see Naminé standing a few steps closer and still smiling. "I know she can be… difficult, but I think I talked her out of kidnapping him 'for his own good.' She's just trying to help, honestly."

He blinked at the girl, impressed that she understood his worries about Kairi so thoroughly, and that she was working to keep her less logical sister under control. He smiled more sincerely, deciding he liked her, and opened his mouth to make hopefully not-awkward small talk, but at that moment Axel appeared from the other side of the car with a bright, almost-strained smile.

"I'm Axel," the redhead introduced himself abruptly, and without the roguish charm (or corny catchphrase) he had delighted Olette with the previous week. Roxas wondered at his strange behavior.

But Naminé took it all with that same guileless smile. "Naminé. I've heard quite a bit about you." Axel raised an eyebrow. "Well, both of you," she laughed, glancing at Roxas. "My sister has some very strong opinions."

Roxas grinned. "Yeah, I can believe that. We're not exactly on the best terms." He looked to Axel, recalling the night at the diner, but the older teen was looking at something a little ways off. He followed Axel's gaze and saw Demyx waving.

"I'll see you later, Roxie. Naminé, nice to meet you." And he was gone, leaving Roxas staring after him, puzzled and a little miffed. He'd gotten used to the redhead's constant presence and attention – not to say that he _liked _it, of course. After a moment he settled on being pleased that he would get a break from the constant flirting and teasing.

"He seems nice," Naminé remarked offhandedly as she started to walk toward the school, their twins a good twenty feet ahead. Roxas brushed off Axel's odd behavior and followed.

"He's alright."

Naminé raised a delicate eyebrow at this ambivalent response, no doubt under the impression that he and Axel were on friendlier terms (and Roxas wasn't sure why it suddenly seemed like they no longer were), but he didn't expound and she didn't pursue, so they dropped the topic and continued their walk in companionable silence. When they reached the building, Naminé hurried off after Kairi and Sora, who seemed to be in an okay mood, and Roxas walked to his class alone, trying to ignore how his solitude suddenly felt more like a problem than a solution.

* * *

Two hours later, Roxas shouldered his way past a group of freshmen filling the hallway, slowly making his way to the cafeteria for lunch. Although he knew he wasn't sick anymore, his head was pounding as if he were. Missing a day and a half of school left him with a slew of assignments and tests to make up – so much that Roxas wondered if his teachers were throwing extra homework on top just to see him suffer.

"Roxas!" A voice called from behind him, and he turned, already smiling, to see the petite blonde girl dashing between people, hoisting her messenger bag more securely onto her shoulder.

"Naminé!" Roxas replied cheekily, stopping so she could catch up. "I hope your morning's been better than mine."

The blonde laughed, a little breathless from her run. "Well, I've only had art and study hall this morning, so I guess you could say that. What was so horrible about yours?"

"Nothing important," he brushed it off, more interested in her statement. "Please tell me your afternoon's not as easy as your morning."

She grimaced. "Not quite. I've got math and then science, but at least I end with English, and that's not so bad."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." He didn't actually, as his English teacher was demanding he write two papers and read an entire book before tomorrow, but he didn't see any need to share that with her. "Art, huh? You draw?"

"I try." Naminé's cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

Roxas grinned. "You're really good at it, aren't you? You seem like the artistic genius type."

Naminé's face grew redder, and she seemed at a loss for words, but at that moment they entered the cafeteria.

"Well, I'm going to go find my sister," she squeaked out in a tone higher than her normal voice, before smiling sheepishly. "I'll see you later, Roxas!"

He watched as she hurried off to where Kairi sat with Sora, his smile fading at his brother's slumped posture. Instantly re-incensed, he turned to locate Riku in the busy lunch room, but the table he usually shared with Sora, Selphie, and Tidus held only the latter two. A few feet away, however, Roxas did find Axel, sitting with Demyx. Their heads were bent close together and they seemed to be discussing something important, except that Axel was actually looking across the cafeteria, to where Kairi, Naminé, and Sora were sitting, though his face was void of readable emotion.

Suddenly Axel looked straight at him, and something in his chest clenched painfully at the redhead's expression, a cross between frustration and desperation. Their eyes remained locked, and Roxas had just decided to go and talk to him, but suddenly Demyx realized that Axel wasn't listening and playfully yanked a spike of his hair. Axel turned to the blond with an easy grin, and, feeling the moment was lost, Roxas likewise turned to his regular lunch table, where his friends were no doubt curious about his recent absences.

Of course nothing could be that simple, Roxas internally groaned as he sat hard on the unforgiving plastic seat. Olette sat on his left, with Pence flanking her on the other side, while Hayner sat across from her, with Seifer seated across from Pence. Roxas made himself an oath to never miss school again, since it clearly caused the entire world to turn against him.

"Roxas!"

"Man, where have you _been_?"

"What's up?"

The teen grinned at the exuberant greetings from his friends, and felt guilty for not spending any time with them recently. Holding a grudge against Hayner seemed ridiculously immature in the face of all Sora's problems.

"Hey, guys. You have no idea how glad I am to be back." He swallowed hard and plucked up his best manners (and a fair bit of courage). "Hey, Seifer. How was your weekend?"

While his friends stared, silent and (he hoped) impressed, Seifer raised a well-manicured eyebrow so that it met the bottom edge of his trademark beanie. "Not so bad that I need a twerp like you trying to make small talk." Roxas stared at him in disbelief, and finally Seifer's lip twitched and Hayner chuckled, obviously amused.

"He's just joking, Roxas. God, your face," Hayner laughed.

Roxas tried to see whatever Hayner saw in his boyfriend's face that led him to this conclusion, but there was nothing except apathetic disdain, and he felt quite certain that Hayner was absolutely delusional. Olette and Pence's lack of amused response other than a few nervous haha's definitely confirmed this theory in Roxas's mind.

When Hayner's laugh finally settled down, Olette pounced on Roxas with endless inquiries about his health.

"Seriously, 'Lette, I feel fine," He stressed the last word as if this would convince his concerned friend to back off. He knew better.

"How can you know that? You never went to the doctor, you took whatever medicine _Sora_ gave you –" this was said in a way that made her trust in his brother's judgment abundantly clear, "– and I'm sure you didn't eat anything decent the whole weekend!"

Roxas opened his mouth to inform her that he had in fact eaten Axel's "personal recommended treatment for all illnesses, real and imagined," but had second thoughts when he remembered what exactly that meal had consisted of, and instead managed a convincing, "Well, I just know."

With a frustrated sigh Olette started her daily ritual of sacrificing half of everyone else's lunches in order to feed Roxas. Even Seifer allowed a bag of chips to be snatched from him without as much as a negative look. But Roxas had been starving, so he took what was given to him without questioning it.

"How's Sora?" Hayner asked, his face concerned.

Roxas hurriedly swallowed a gulp of particularly peanut butter-y PB&J in order to reply, "As well as can be expected. How did you find out?" His eyes automatically gravitated to where his twin sat, and the brunet did seem to be in better spirits as he munched away on a heavily frosted and sprinkled cookie, courtesy of Kairi, no doubt. The redhead herself casually brushed a crumb off Sora's shirt as he watched, but made no inappropriate movements toward him, which relieved Roxas. Sora didn't need that on top of everything else.

"I was at the party, remember? I kinda… watched it unfold, though I'm still really fuzzy on the details." His brow furrowed as he puzzled over something. "Riku was seriously torn up about it."

Roxas immediately felt his anger rise. "Good. That _bastard_¸" he stressed the word, and Hayner nearly flinched, "deserves to feel worse than the lowest kind of shit."

Seifer looked up sharply at this point, and Roxas grudgingly backed off; it wasn't Hayner's fault.

"No one's saying that Sora wasn't the victim, Roxas," Olette tried to smooth the tense moment over, "Just that every story has two sides, and you have to admit that this situation is a little off."

Roxas was about to go into a tirade about just how "off"" everything was, but he caught Naminé's eyes over Olette's shoulder by chance, and all his anger drained out of him at her concerned look.

"Maybe," Roxas compromised sulkily as Naminé turned to listen to something Kairi said, not missing his friends' raised eyebrows and puzzled looks.

Several minutes passed as they ate in silence, knowing lunch was nearly over.

"Where's Axel?" Seifer suddenly asked, looking genuinely curious, while Roxas looked at him in disbelief. Nobody else seemed to find the question odd, however, and there was a general murmur of not knowing.

Roxas finally supplied the information. "He's sitting with Demyx." The group turned to see that he was in fact with the musician, and they were apparently engaged in a conversation that required Demyx to lean his head against Axel's shoulder. A surge of irrational anger lurched through Roxas, but he brushed it off as just that: irrational. "Why?"

"'Cause he usually sits with us," Hayner replied offhandedly.

"He does?" Roxas asked, wishing his heart wouldn't beat quite so violently against his rib cage.

"Well, yeah. He doesn't know many people here yet, and he was waiting – well, you know." Olette cut off a bit flustered.

Roxas almost growled with annoyance; Olette clearly didn't understand how vital this information was. "No, I don't know. Waiting for what?"

"But that's just it. For you, of course," Roxas's heart fluttered madly into his throat, "but here you are… and there he is," and plunged directly down to the pits of his stomach. He pushed his food away queasily.

Olette watched him carefully, clearly hoping she had been delicate enough, and Roxas shrugged, keeping his face carefully neutral; he was more than sick of his body reacting to everything so dramatically and without his consent.

He laughed weakly, hoping to brush it off, and his voice grew stronger as he talked. "He's allowed to sit where he wants, guys. He's been friends with Demyx for years, and we hardly even know each other!" But here he lost his steam. "It's not like – like he _belongs_ to me," his voice cracked dreadfully toward the end of his sentence and he looked down at his plate, swallowing back the tightness in his throat.

Thankfully at that moment the bell rang and Roxas escaped from whatever well-intentioned things his friends might be preparing to say. As he fought through the throng of students heading to their next class, Roxas heard Naminé call his name over the din, but he pretended not to and just kept pushing through people until he could walk the halls relatively unencumbered.

It took him a few minutes to realize that he was going the exact opposite of the direction his classroom was in and when he did it was with an audible groan of agony that earned him some doubting looks. As he whipped around his eyes caught on a flash of brilliant silver hair, hair that could only belong to one person in the school.

Before he knew what he was doing he was across the hallway. Images of Sora, broken-spirited in his doorway, sobbing in his arms, slumped defeatedly over a kitchen table, then images of Axel, aloof and ambivalent, and finally of Demyx, laughing as he leaned into Axel in a decidedly more than friendly way – these images ran through his mind on repeat as he grabbed the silveret roughly by the shoulder, slammed him into the lockers with a strength he hadn't known he'd possessed, and drove his fist straight into Riku's pretty face with a sick and satisfying _crack_.


	8. Chapter VII

_Y'know, I actually think this might be the shortest break I've ever had between new chapters. Only six months. Yeah. Anyway. Here's chapter seven - I feel like we're at about the halfway point in this story, or maybe a little past, just so no one's surprised when this wraps up in (hopefully) six chapters+epilogue. _

_I wanna dedicate this chapter to ItStartedWithAPaopu, my lovely girlfriend/beta/muse, who sat at IHOP with me for three hours tonight to work out the end of this story, and then paid for my pancakes. Yeah, she's a keeper. Enjoy the chapter!_

_NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that if I keep saying that Roxas, Sora, and Aerith are desperately poor, I need to explain how they have such a nice house in a nice neighborhood, and lots of nice things. These things were all bought BEFORE Roxas's father left, and Aerith uses all of her paychecks to handle the mortgage, which is one of the horrible adjustable ones that make life hell for a single mother. _

* * *

Sending Demyx off to class with a conspiratorial wink, Axel leisurely moved with the crowd out of the cafeteria. He was not in a good mood. Although he and Roxas did share all of their morning classes, the blond had been too busy making up all of his work to pay him any attention at all. And then at lunch Demyx had demanded that they sit together to deal with the "Riku Issue," so he'd been expected to supply genius ideas and witty remarks as he watched that Naminé girl pant all over his Roxas.

Demyx had a reason to be so insistent that they figure out something to do about Riku. Word had traveled fast through the student body, and overnight the entire school had turned against the silveret, for although Riku was the school heartthrob, Sora was like everybody's sweet, innocent little brother. But Axel couldn't help but feel his own annoyance with his housemate; the redhead had finally felt like he was making progress with Roxas, and now the blond was too preoccupied with Sora's fucked-up relationship to pay any attention to his own. Axel was, however, making sure his support for Riku stayed between him and Demyx; he imagined that if Roxas discovered his mixed allegiance, he'd be banished from his life forever, or something equally dramatic. Regardless, their lunch meeting had been basically useless, with Demyx more interested in passing along gossip and Axel himself torn between glaring at Naminé and sending wistful looks in his usual table's direction.

As he moved through the hallways, he noticed the crowd of students was becoming thicker, exactly the opposite of what usually happened as they filtered off into classrooms. They were louder, too, and due to his advantage in height, he could see over the nearest students to where the throng was thickest.

_Great, and now I'll be late for class_, Axel mused, annoyed, as a mixture of panicked and encouraging shouts became distinguishable from the general mash of noises. Intrigued, Axel pushed some unimportant freshmen out of his way and finally managed to get a decent of view of what the students were crowded around. The fight – as he was pretty sure it had to be – had moved to the floor, so all Axel saw, between one guy's shoulder and a cheerleader's bouncy ponytail, was a very familiar head of golden spikes.

"Roxas?" he asked no one incredulously, and he suddenly found himself much more capable of moving through the crowd then before, though whether it was from some students struggling out of the throng to go find a teacher or simply because he now had more than a passing interesting in the source of the commotion, he had no idea. He knocked some feebly protesting guy out of the way and saw the whole scene. Roxas had the much bigger and stronger Riku pinned to the ground and, straddling his waist, was punching him repeatedly in whichever part of him was closest. Riku made no move to stop him, or even to protect himself, other than weakly holding a hand over his profusely bleeding nose and making muffled grunts of pain.

"Jesus Christ," Axel groaned lowly, and in one swift movement had the still punching Roxas securely in his embrace and away from Riku.

"Let me go!" the blond spat, furiously struggling to get out of his captor's grip, and as Axel re-secured a fist that had been flying dangerously toward his family jewels, he hoped Roxas didn't know who was restraining him.

"Would you calm the fuck down?" he demanded breathlessly; Roxas had more strength than his small body would have lead him to believe.

At his words, Roxas's attempts to escape paused, and then he began trying to twist around to see him, but the taller teen's grip remained firm.

"Axel?"

"The one and only."

"Oh."

And just like that, the struggle ceased, and Roxas hung limp in his arms.

Seeing that he was sedated for now, Axel turned his attention back to Riku, though he never loosened his hold on the blond's arms. He was just now managing to support himself on one arm, and the sight of the normally immaculate Riku looking so entirely disheveled would have been funny in any other situation. His clothes were torn in a few places and twisted so violently that Axel doubted they'd ever fit right again; his silver hair was in complete disarray, and several strands were matted to his face by the blood still trickling from his nose; and one of his eyes was swollen shut, while the other looked up at him angrily.

"Shit." Axel turned his gaze back to Roxas, who was looking at his fist in disturbed awe. "I'm in so much trouble."

"You could say that," the redhead agreed unsympathetically as he scanned the now-dispersing students for a familiar face. "Seifer!"

The bully appeared to have not witnessed the fight and just passed the aftermath on his way to class, and he walked over with a raised eyebrow. "Don't tell me chickenwuss –" Roxas grimaced at his affectionate nickname "– did this."

Axel ignored the snarky comment. "Can you help me get Riku to the nurse?" Despite Roxas's cooperation thus far, he didn't want to risk letting the blond go so he could help Riku – not to mention, who knew when he'd have the blond in his arms again?

Seifer shrugged and hoisted Riku up, pulling one arm over his shoulder so that the teen could lean on him, but Riku didn't. Instead he just glared at Axel until he was led in front of them, and Axel imagined that, had he been in less pain, he would be craning his neck to maintain the vicious look.

With a deep sigh of "why me," Axel manhandled Roxas down the hallway, ignoring the blond's sarcastic insistences that he wouldn't kill anyone until they dwindled off in the face of Axel's threat to carry the blond bridal-style through the school.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Axel finally asked and he slowed down to allow Seifer to pull Riku ahead and into the nurse's office, watching with a critical eye as the injured teen stumbled and swore.

"He deserved it!" Roxas hissed, as if offended that Axel even had to ask.

In response, Axel tightened his grip on the teen's arm, and, hoping he wouldn't regret it but feeling that _someone_ had to say it, replied, "Did he, Roxas?"

The blond was silent, and Axel guessed that he was sulking as they walked into the office, where the pale, black-haired nurse was already bent over Riku.

"Oh dear," she fretted as she gingerly dabbed at his face with an alcohol-soaked swab. Riku's expression was impassive, despite Axel's encouraging grin. Roxas stood mutely beside him.

"Hello!" The nurse exclaimed when she noticed them in the doorway. With a soft, "Just wait right here, dear," to Riku, she went to examine her newest patient. "And what might I do for you?" she asked sweetly, placing her hand against Roxas's forehead to check his temperature out of habit.

Axel interrupted her by holding up the blond's bloody knuckles for her examination.

"Ah," the nurse tutted, less sympathetic, and grabbed a fresh alcohol-doused cotton ball, which she passed not-so-gently across the aching knuckles. He hissed at the sting in a scratch on his third knuckle that he somehow received during his attack, and she tutted again.

"You," she spoke kindly but firmly as she took one last close look at his fist, "will be fine; the bruising should fade in a day or so. I can't say the same about your handiwork over here," she finished with a stern look.

Roxas had the grace to appear ashamed, though Axel doubted his sincerity. Nevertheless, he smiled at the blond's unhappiness, feeling he at least deserved that.

"So," the nurse had returned to Riku, but she spoke to Axel, "Can I trust you to deliver him to the principal? This one will be along soon enough."

Roxas grimaced, and Axel made to lead him back out into the hallway, where he ran into a harassed teacher who must have come in search of the participants in the fight. Seeing his distressed expression and bruised fist, she whisked the blond away from Axel to lead him to the principal herself, leaving the redheaded teen with a reprimand to return to class and a pitiful look from Roxas.

* * *

"Mr. Strife."

Roxas was seated across the desk from Principal Lockhart, twiddling his thumbs nervously in his lap.

"Would you like to explain what provoked you to attack Mr. Masaki?"

Roxas looked down at his thumbs. "Not really."

"It wasn't actually a request." The severe woman frowned, but Roxas remained silent, so she sighed and pulled off her glasses. Roxas tensed, fighting off the (he hoped) ridiculous urge to run; there were rumors that before taking the job as principal, Tifa Lockhart had been the leader of an underground fighting ring, and Roxas was inclined to believe them.

"Here's the deal, Roxas."

The blond looked up, hopeful.

"Starting a fight on school property is a chargeable offense. I should be escorting you to the police station right now."

He visibly deflated.

"However–"

His head rose once more in hope.

"You have always been an exemplary student, aside from the chemistry incident last week– "

Roxas opened his mouth to insist that it was not his fault, but she held up a hand.

"I have heard from many sources that that was not directly your fault, though you could've taken measures to prevent it. Regardless, you have never caused any trouble for the school, and your teachers have assured me that you have a lot of potential. In light of this, and provided Mr. Masaki does not insist on pressing charges, I will keep the issue of your punishment between me and you."

The blond wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not.

"You will be suspended for the week, with no opportunity to make up your missed work, you will do five hours of community service to the school outside of school hours, and you will write Mr. Masaki a formal apology."

The sentence was not nearly as bad as it could have been, and, except for the apology, Roxas had no complaint. Considering the woman's leniency, he decided to press his luck a little further. "Couldn't I just miss two weeks, or do ten hours of community service, instead of the apology?"

Her harsh glare was answer enough. "You are in no position to bargain. I am already being extremely kind."

Roxas nodded, dismayed, before standing. He was reaching for the door handle when she spoke once more.

"You should know that I expect you to be the very image of perfect behavior from this moment until you cross the stage and I hand you your diploma. If you so much as make me wonder if I have misplaced my trust, I will see to it that no person will ever make my mistake again." She ended with a kind smile and Roxas fumbled futilely at the door for a moment before escaping, still intact.

Riku was leaning against the wall when he exited. Their eyes locked for a split-second before the blond looked away, jaw tense. They stood a moment in silence, and then Riku went into the office. Roxas was hardly alone long enough to wonder why Riku had to see the principal; the receptionist poked her head around the corner to tell him his mother was here to pick him up.

Dreading her reaction, Roxas waited patiently as Aerith signed some papers, tight-lipped. A few minutes later they were in the car, and Roxas was getting increasingly worried the longer she remained silent.

"Look, Mom –"

"Save it, Roxas," Aerith replied tersely, green eyes sharp and narrowed at the road. He decided to wait until she started the conversation, staring at the scenery passing by as they turned down their street.

Turning more sharply than necessary into the driveway, Aerith braked and put the car into park before finally letting out a frustrated noise.

"What in the world is wrong with you?" she demanded.

Roxas crossed his arms defensively. "You don't understand," he began, intending to explain why exactly his attack against Riku had been merited, fully aware that she had no idea what had happened, but he didn't get the chance.

"You're damn right I don't! You've been sullen and difficult for weeks, skipping school and getting detentions, and Sora locked himself in his room the whole weekend, blaring his music while I'm trying to get whatever sleep I can manage between shifts, and then you go and start fights at school, with _Riku_ of all people, when his family has been so helpful and supportive these past four years! Jesus, Roxas, does it ever occur to you to think about anyone else? My boss docked my pay because I had to leave during our biggest rush to come pick you up from school, and I'm surprised he didn't just tell me to not bother coming back tomorrow! We're barely managing as it is, and you can't even comprehend how hard that's going to make this month! You and Sora are so consumed with whatever teenage drama you're dealing with, I doubt either of you have taken a single moment to consider how your behavior is affecting anyone but yourselves!"

She glared at him accusingly, breathing labored after her long rant, waiting for a response.

Roxas simply stared at her for a moment, incredulous, before getting out of the car without a word and heading toward the house.

He heard his mom follow mere moments later, shutting the car door with a bang. "Get back here right _now_, Roxas Strife, I'm not fini–"

He slammed the front door, cutting her off, and headed for the kitchen, trying to focus on getting a glass of milk and going to his room.

"Where do you think you're going, young man? Get back here and talk to me!" She yelled, and the door was slammed once more before she followed him to the kitchen. "What on earth is this about?"

The teenager slammed the expired milk carton down onto a counter and whirled to face his mother, seething.

"You want to know what this is about? Fine. Maybe it's about me being a teenager and getting upset over a fight with Hayner. Maybe it's about Axel moving in next door and changing everything in my life whether I want it or not. Or maybe," here his voice dropped down to a low, furious hiss, "Maybe it's about how Sora walked in on Riku having sex with some other guy three days ago and how you're never around long enough to have any _idea_ what's happening in our lives!" His blue eyes flashed with anger and he stormed from the room without a backward glance.

He made it halfway to his room as she stood stunned in the doorway of the kitchen.

"What… what did you say?" Her voice had risen a few octaves in disbelief and she almost sounded pained.

Roxas was glad.

"Oh, so now you'll stick around? Now you care what's going on? Jeez, Mom, how very considerate of you." The venom in his words was palpable, and he faced her once more, speaking slowly. "I said that Sora walked in on Riku fucking another guy. _Three days ago_. You want your mother of the goddamn year award now or later?"

"I didn't know, Roxas," she said hollowly, looking at Sora's bedroom door, shaken. Roxas had never seen his mother look so exhausted, but he couldn't care less.

"No, Mom, you didn't." He hesitated for a second, before continuing, "I'll be in my room," and leaving her alone in the hallway.

* * *

Around two-thirty Roxas took a break from his Mount Everest of makeup work. Knowing that he'd be forced to take zeros for all of his assignments and tests this week, he'd have to make perfect scores on whatever he could to keep from pulling dismal grades this quarter.

_I don't need to give Mom another reason to freak out_, he thought ruthlessly, but honestly, the mindless reading assignments and short essays had given him a chance to calm down and feel bad for speaking so harshly to his mother. He just didn't feel bad enough to wish he could take it back. She might have been justified in being angry, but Roxas didn't feel that anything he said had been uncalled for in the face of her accusations. After all, it wasn't his fault that she didn't know what was going on with her sons. It was her fault, and their father's fault for leaving and making her work two jobs in the first place.

Leaving it at that, and ignoring his grumbling conscience, Roxas stretched backward against his chair until he heard (and felt) a satisfying _pop_. The rest of his work could wait, he decided, rubbing his spine. Knowing that Aerith would have left for work by now, he decided to forage for food, which would be even more difficult than usual, knowing that Ri – the Bastard wouldn't be bringing over take out, or inviting them to dinner with his family.

_Not that I'd accept anything that cheating man-whore had to offer_, Roxas mused self-righteously. As he walked out of his room, he heard the front door open, and a glance at his watch confirmed that it was Sora. Roxas felt a small twinge of guilt for abandoning his twin at school, and hoped he'd managed to find a ride home – surely Axel or Naminé would have offered.

"Rox?" Sora called from the entryway, just as Roxas emerged from the hallway.

"Hey, Sora. Any trouble finding a ride?"

The brunet snorted, and Roxas was glad that he seemed to be in a better mood. "Definitely not. I had people I haven't talked to in _years_ offer, though I think they just wanted some first-hand gossip." He made a face. "But Hayner and Seifer, Olette, Axel, and Principal Lockhart all offered."

Since Sora didn't seem surprised by the intimidating woman's offer, Roxas decided not to remark on it, though he did raise an eyebrow. "So who had the honor?" he asked teasingly.

"Kairi and Naminé, actually. They asked first." His expression suddenly became defiant as he noticed Roxas's narrowed eyes. "Hey! Don't give me that look. I _know_ you don't like them. But it's been years since we've spent any time with them, and you don't know that they're even the same people anymore. Not to mention they've been really nice and considerate all day while you weren't around, so… yeah."

He seemed to lose steam toward the end, and Roxas snorted, leaning against a wall while the brunet made a big fuss about removing his backpack and setting it down, obviously hoping to distract him from the lackluster finale.

"There is nothing in the world that Kairi could do to make me see her as anything but the crazy psycho bitch she is. God, you should have seen the way she treated me and Axel at the diner the other night. It was…"

Sora's sudden frozen expression reminded Roxas that one of the best nights of his life was Sora's worst.

"But Naminé, she's totally different," he began again, feebly. "I mean, she doesn't do any of that fake charm that's Kairi's specialty, and she's totally down to earth. If they weren't identical, I wouldn't believe they're related. Did you know she's an artist? I bet she's one of those quiet artistic geniuses. When I see her again I'm gonna convince her to let me see some of her work." Roxas was completely aware that he was rambling in his effort to distract Sora, but judging by the brunet's raised eyebrows and comically agape mouth, it had worked anyway.

Sora seemed to regain control of his features and was now looking at the blond mournfully.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"What?"

Sora dropped dramatically onto the couch, shaking his head.

"There's no way."

"What?" He demanded, completely bewildered by his twin's weird behavior.

"You have a crush on Naminé."

Silence fell.

"I – What?" Roxas asked again, sure he'd misheard.

"You heard me."

"But that's ridiculous!" he laughed, but faltered when Sora didn't join in. "Isn't it?"

"It is," the brunet assured him, "but that doesn't have an impact on whether or not it's true."

Roxas could only stare blankly, so Sora continued.

"Look, I've known you for almost your entire life–" Roxas wondered what part he _hadn't_ known him for, "–and I've heard you talk about a lot of people, and I have never heard you talk about anyone like you just did about her."

Roxas blinked. "But that's not fair! I was just rambling, so I could dis–"

"Doesn't matter."

"It does so!"

"Does not!"

Roxas gritted his teeth, fully aware from lots of experience that Sora would win if they kept on like that, and took a moment to consider it. Did he have a crush on Naminé? He knew he liked her – she was nice, funny, smart, and talking to her was practically effortless. He hadn't found something not to like. But _like_ like? He wasn't sure, but even if he did…

"Why is that a bad thing? If it were true, I mean," he hastily tacked on.

Sora looked up at him incredulously from his prone position on the couch.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because the boy next door is in love with you? Why do you think, dumbass?"

"I'm not a dumbass!" He shot back petulantly, "And you're delusional. It was just some silly crush, and he's obviously completely over it," Roxas replied, recalling his day, which had been free of Axel's almost expected flirting.

Sora sent him an annoyed look.

"Even if that were true, which it is most definitely _not_, as is obvious to those of us who aren't dumbasses, it'd still be bad. You're gay."

Roxas scoffed, exasperated. "That makes less than no sense, Sora. Wouldn't having a crush on a _girl_ be proof that I'm _not _gay, and thus actually be a good thing?" As Roxas said this, he suddenly found himself reexamining his feelings for Naminé with less skepticism.

"No," Sora returned in his own exasperated tone, "because you _are _gay. I'm your twin; I know these things. It's bad because now you're going to think this crush gives you hope for being _not _gay, and will just lead to more self-denial and, in the long term, heartbreak."

Roxas tried to ignore how much sense Sora's seemingly illogical statements made, and instead jumped on his one weak point. "But if I'm gay, wouldn't that make it impossible for me to have a crush on a girl? I mean, you're as gay as they come; have you ever had a crush on a girl?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Sora sat up with a serious expression and replied level-voiced, "You know I've never had feelings for anyone except him."

The blond swallowed hard, immediately regretting the question, and sat down beside his twin. "Yeah, I know."

There was a pregnant silence.

"I thought he felt that way toward me, too, y'know?" Sora's voice was quivery and Roxas knew they were in dangerous territory, but didn't know which would be better for Sora – ignoring the problem or letting it all out. He waited for him to make the decision.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"No," Roxas replied, relieved at not having to fumble through an emotional conversation with Sora after all the other drama of the day, and he followed him into kitchen, where the milk carton still sat on that counter, definitely spoiled now if it hadn't been before. Sora turned to Roxas with a questioning look, and the blond grimaced.

"Sorry, my fault. Mom and I got into a huge fight and I forgot it in all the commotion." He dumped the carton's contents down the sink drain, trying not to look in case they had already curdled.

Sora nodded, "Yeah, I wondered how she would take your suspension. Not well, I'm guessing."

"You heard about that?" Roxas asked, though he'd expected the gossip to travel fast.

"Duh. What'd she say?"

Roxas chuckled nervously, knowing his twin would not approve of what he said to Aerith. "Well, she basically went on a rant about me being selfish and too focused on silly teenage drama, and I told her she is a bad mom and explained why. I think I shocked her out of punishing me."

Sora tutted disapprovingly, but otherwise made no remark, and the pair settled in to eat canned low-sodium soup and toast for dinner.

* * *

After they ate Sora produced a secret stash of candy from his room and they popped _The Princess Bride_, Sora's favorite movie, into the DVD player. Snuggled together under a small blanket – it had begun to rain outside and the temperature had dropped fifteen degrees, but neither felt like moving to shut the living room window – Roxas couldn't remember Sora ever crying so much during any previous viewing of the movie, but he allowed the brunet to lean against him without comment. (He still laughed at the "Inconceivable!" scene, so Roxas was pretty sure he was handling it alright, overall.) After that ended, they watched _Finding Nemo_ and _Mr. and Mrs. Smith_, throughout which Sora compared the couple's dysfunctional relationship to his and Axel's to Roxas's annoyance (and secret amusement).

When Aerith came in from work hours later, exhausted but with a new sense of accomplishment and determination, the Phantom was serenading Christine as he led her into the bowels of the opera house, and her two sons were a mass of spiky hair and limbs that occasionally emitted snores and mutters. She smiled to herself and disappeared, reappearing a moment later with the large blanket off Roxas's bed. After doing her best to tuck the pair in, Aerith dropped a quick kiss on each forehead, shut the window as quietly as possible, and, with one more quick, loving, motherly glance at her babies, headed off to bed.

* * *

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